About
we came from far
Premuda was established in Trieste in 1907, when this historic city was still part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. We still keep the first articles of association of the company, according to which it was founded under the name of “Navigazione a Vapore” (steamship navigation) G.L. Premuda.
As such, despite many people still today tend to connect the name of PREMUDA with the celebration of the well-known “Impresa di Premuda” (naval war action conducted in 1918 by the Italian Navy against the Austrian one in the Adriatic Sea, in the waters off the isle of Prèmuda, in today’s Croatia), the reality is different. The business establishment was precedent and PREMUDA is the name of the main shareholder of the ship-owning company, which according to the deed of incorporation was intended to be public from the very beginning.
Hence, differently from many other Italian shipping companies, we really have in our DNA the fact of being public, open to frequent changes in investor base and keen to financial innovation. Our legal address has been in Trieste until 2017, before the definitive move to Genoa and our strong link with this cosmopolite city is witnessed by the name of our good vessel as “PS Trieste”.
After its establishment, PREMUDA was able to survive two World Wars, and its relentless growth lasted until the end of 2007. In that year, consolidated net equity reached the highest level of Euro 207 million after the distribution of an extraordinary dividend to celebrate the 100th year of activity. In 2016 Pillarstone (Italian subsidiary of KKR) become the main lender of record by acquiring the exposures of the main Italian banks. The step-in of Pillarstone was providential for the Group, which was struggling with a comprehensive financial reorganization, and opened the doors of a new and unexpected phase of development. Pillarstone supported the relaunch of Premuda with a remarkable cash injection (USD 44 million) and become the new sole shareholder of the company (which at that time was delisted from the Milan Stock Exchange). After the Pillarstone step-in, the Group structure was streamlined and a significant operational turnaround was implemented in order to reduce complexity and set-up a lean and efficient platform to support the relaunch of the fleet reconstruction, also leveraging on other shipping investments in the Pillarstone portfolio.
At the beginning of 2019, a new team of senior executives was appointed: Marco Fiori as Chief Executive Officer and Enrico Barbieri as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director. Under the tenure of the new management team the fleet size increased rapidly, and a great number of special projects were delivered, including S&P deals, refinancing arrangements, fleet integrations and corporate transactions.
In 2023, after a 7-years period of post-restructuring phase under the umbrella of a Plan Art. 67, Premuda paid in full its financial debt owed towards the legacy banks. In 2025 the senior management of Premuda, with the support of Pillarstone as anchor-investor designed and executed a management buy-out transaction, a one-in-kind transaction in the Italian shipping.
Our ultimate goal as PREMUDA is to set sails towards the new frontiers of the global smart shipping, primarily by increasing the fuel efficiency of the existing fleet and also by taking into account the IMO targets on CO2 reductions in developing the concept of our fleet renewal.
