Introduction
(Joshua Flood)
2025 starts with a bang, as Navarino announces the 100% ownership purchase of Castor Marine BV, the Dutch maritime service provider of satellite connectivity and IT services.
Castor Marine will retain its independent brand outside of the Navarino Group, but it will utilise Navarino’s bigger resources and digital portfolio of services.
The maritime connectivity ecosystem has been flooded with M&A activities over the last few years, and the pace of these activities will surely continue in 2025 and beyond. New faster-bandwidth LEO constellation services and the further commoditisation of connectivity mean both satellite operators and service providers need to figure out how to maintain their proposal value and commerciality of operations. This piece aims to evaluate and understand each company, as well as the potential outcomes and impacts of this action.
Navarino
(Joshua Flood)
Navarino is a global maritime technology service provider, a major connectivity and IT solution provider in the shipping market. Interestingly, the combined size of Navarino and Castor Marine, if they became one entity, would amount to a 7.2% share in the global maritime connectivity market, leaping to the fourth spot according to our Future of Maritime Connectivity report rankings. However, we need to highlight both companies will be run as separate entities.
Some of its customers have been with the company for nearly 30 years, which shows how well respected it is by some of its customer base.
Dimitris Tsikopoulos and his brother Panos Tsikopoulos founded the company, which has been managed commercially astutely, according to industry peers. Its digital value-added services are well-regarded, particularly its smart box product, Infinity.
Navarino is the biggest VAR of Inmarsat’s FX connectivity service, which forms a substantial part of its business. The firm served around 2,800 FX vessels worldwide as of the end of 2023, generating more than $50 million in associated VSAT connectivity revenues. Navarino also offers Ku-band service (Prodigy) through the IntelsatOne Flex managed service, serving nearly 1,000 vessels. Moreover, Navarino provides L-band services via Iridium’s Certus and OpenPort, Inmarsat’s FBB services, and Inmarsat-C’s GMDSS service.
In early 2023, Navarino became a reseller of Starlink and have deployed more than 4,000 Starlink terminals as of today. The demand for Starlink services in the Greek and worldwide commercial shipping market has been substantial, and Navarino quickly integrated the LEO service into bundled packages for its customers worldwide. As of January 2025, Navarino has 4,000 over Starlink terminals deployed.
In addition to connectivity services, Navarino sells or leases Infinity smart boxes. Infinity also has bandwidth management and optimisation capabilities. Furthermore, the firm offers cybersecurity alongside other IoT, network, and fleet management services. The company makes a considerable amount of money from these other services, which are lucrative. Ultimately, connectivity remains profitable for Navarino, equally important to its business; with revenues around $100 million in 2023. Valour Consultancy estimates its IT and cybersecurity services amount to more than $30 million per annum. Vessel connectivity and IT services go hand in hand.
Castor Marine (part of Castor Networks)
(Joshua Flood)
Castor Networks was formed in 2009 by Ivo Veldkamp. Castor Marine, the maritime-focused division of the business, was started in 2013. It provides secure internet connectivity and IT networks specifically designed for the maritime industry. Readers should note this is the entity being sold to Navarino, not Castor Networks. Castor Networks is a separate entity, and they are only “in brand” under the Castor group
Castor Networks has its own GEO VSAT network and a teleport facility in the Netherlands, and several in other regions. The group operates worldwide and serves mining, offshore energy, governments, and NGOs.
As such, Castor Marine supports a wide range of vessels, including commercial ships, offshore vessels, and superyachts. In late 2022, the business also started reselling SpaceX’s Starlink mobility services, alongside its other connectivity services from other GEO VSAT, MSS satellite operators and mobile cellular network firms.
This allowed the ISP to leapfrog several of its rivals with the aid of Starlink connectivity. The firm honed the persona of a “boutique premium ISP,” focusing upon hybrid bundle connectivity packages. It rapidly increased its deployment of LEO connectivity across its customers’ fleets. Furthermore, the ISP’s biggest and most renowned customers are Wagenborg (Koninklijke) and Jan de Nul. Both use Starlink across all their fleets.
According to our recent report on ‘The Future of Maritime Connectivity’, Valour Consultancy estimated by the end of 2023, the ISP had more than 1,100 vessels using its GEO VSAT and Starlink services.
Impact Now
(Alishia Sims)
Navarino’s acquisition of Castor Marine is the latest in a series of acquisitions over the last three years.
In 2023, Viasat completed the acquisition of Inmarsat and Eutelsat combined OneWeb, while in 2024, SES announced its $3.1 billion acquisition of Intelsat.
Acquisitions are driven by innovation, customer footprint, commerciality, and other factors, but Starlink’s impact on maritime connectivity is a prominent point.
Starlink is undoubtedly having an impact on the maritime sector. Our quarterly Maritime Connectivity Tracker service estimates that 25,000 vessels are using LEO broadband speed service today. While the LEO service has opened a variety of opportunities for its resellers, it does create new challenges. One example is that it generates significantly less revenues in comparison than GEO VSAT, and certainly smaller profits.
Nevertheless, as connectivity becomes more commoditised, service providers are increasingly turning to value-added services as a profit generator.
From Navarino’s perspective, the benefit will be selling its IT management, network and cyber security services to Castor Marine’s estimated 1,100 vessels. Moreover, another main driver for the acquisition is that it allows Navarino to expand to the offshore segment.
Although the Dutch service provider will continue to serve these vessels, Navarino will propagate its digital value-added services to this new customer base. Navarino’s Infinity, Quazar, Spectrum and Angel services will expand.
Of course, this is not a particularly surprising result. Product sharing and expanding the reach of a company’s offerings to another’s customer base is a well-established practice in acquisitions. This is particularly evident in the comments from Navarino CEO Dimitris Tsikopoulos, who stated, “Together, we can offer enhanced services and exceed the high standards our customers have come to expect of us,” echoed by Castor Marine CEO, Ivo Veldkamp, who remarked, “This partnership enables Castor Marine to expand its service portfolio, delivering even greater value to our customers.”
Conclusion
(Alishia Sims and Joshua Flood)
To sum up Valour Consultancy’s five key points on this recent move:
- Navarino will have an extra 1,100 new customer vessels (via Castor Marine), a GEO VSAT network, access to a teleport facility in the Netherlands and some very notable European customers.
- Following on from the last point, Navarino now has some notable offshore and leisure yachting businesses, building on its success in merchant maritime. Whenever and wherever possible, Navarino will indubitably aim to enhance each customer’s experience and services.
- One angle for this, Navarino will also be able to cross-sell all its digital services. Navarino will provide much more stability for Castor Marine to continue in operations and potentially grow. Talking about such, the combined size of Navarino and Castor, if they became one entity, would amount to a 7.2% share in the global maritime connectivity market, leaping to fourth spot in our rankings. However, we need to highlight both companies will be run as separate entities.
- Finally, the Greek service provider probably got a great deal on the purchase price on the undisclosed transaction.