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Interview with Ivo Stevens
Ivo Stevens from Gent is a third-generation inland navigation entrepreneur.
Thanks to his family background, he has all the necessary qualities to successfully
grow the Galaxie NV enterprise, which was founded in 1990. The mts Elisa S is the
second ship the company turn-key ordered at RensenDriessen.
Stevens’ spouse Erika Kiss is not only his staunch partner in life, but also in
business. Every once in a while, they critically assess their business goals to
make sure they’re still on the right track. Two years ago, during one of those
assessments, it became clear that there was enough room to invest in the future.
Many years had passed since the words ‘new construction’ had been uttered, but
there they were again, out loud. The last time new construction was discussed
had been during the construction of their 110.00m mts Galapagos in 2002. As it
happens, RensenDriessen was the one to turn-key deliver that ship to Galaxie NV
as well.
After a conversation with the bank, what were first only thoughts of new
construction developed into definitive building schemes for a new tanker,
mainly because Stevens could tell his banker that RensenDriessen would trade-
in his current ship at a fixed rate. And with that, the financial part of the story
was complete. Stevens effortlessly envisioned several ships in the following
months. Several images and details that stuck with him and that he put to paper
resembled a type of ship that had been built several times already. His new ship
was going to be a 135.00m tanker.
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Delivered in 2015