How it started
Lomar Shipping
Libra Group's predecessor company, Lomar Shipping, was founded by Michael Logothetis in London in 1976. Michael Logothetis's son George Logothetis joined Lomar Shipping in 1993. In 1995, he became company CEO, enlarging Lomar's fleet from less than five to more than 55 ships during the subsequent decade.
Libra Group and diversification
In 2003, George Logothetis founded Libra Group, based in New York and London, in order to diversify and expand the shipping company into new business areas. George remains Libra Group's executive chairman.
At the time of the company's formation, international shipping was still its chief area of operations. Between 2004 and 2007, during a boom in the shipping business, Libra Group sold off most of Lomar's ships. With the profit from the ship sales, the new company purchased a fleet of airplanes, which were at a cyclical low, and set up an aircraft leasing division, Lease Corporation International (LCI), which leases aircraft to airlines such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Libra Group repeated this successful "buy-low, sell-high" formula of going counter to prevailing market trends several times in the ensuing decade, building a large diversified multinational organization out of the former small shipping company. Each of the company's new ventures was headed by existing top personnel or close associates.
Expansion
From Wikipedia’s article on Libra Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2