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The Kulukundis family set up a shipping agency in London called Rethymnis & Kulukundis Ltd in 1920. In 1936 the firm moved into ship owning. In 1940, three of the brothers - Manuel, George and Michael - transferred their activities to New York, while John Kulukundis and a cousin Basil Mavroleon remained in London to run their ships under the control of the Ministry of War Transport. After the war they recommenced business operations and moved into tramp tanker owning. London & Overseas Freighters Ltd was incorporated in 1948 taking over the vessels of three family-owned firms - the Putney Steamships Co. Ltd, the Tower Steamship Co. Ltd and the Dorset Steamship Co. Ltd. These were all dry cargo carriers. It was decided to use the prefix 'London' in the names of the company ships and to display the coat of arms of the city on their bridges. The first of the new tankers was completed in 1950. The firm became a public company in 1951. In the early 1960s LOF was operating new dry cargo ships, tankers and ore carriers but the company profits were hit by the US blockade of Cuba. In the late 1960s they moved into very large crude carriers and acquired a shipbuilding firm – Bartram & Sons Ltd (they also owned an interest in Austin & Pickersgill Ltd). During the 1970s a rise in the price of crude oil and the nationalisation of the shipbuilding industry hit profits. Things improved at the end of the 1980s with a reduction in worldwide shipping tonnage and a drop in the price of oil. In 1992, the company moved to Bermuda to minimise its tax payments. In 1997 it sold its Panamax tanker fleet and merged with the Norwegian shipping group, Frontline.