Gulf Navigation Holdings has sold a medium-range chemical tanker that has origins stretching back to the time the company had a close relationship with Stolt-Nielsen, several brokers reported.
Undisclosed Chinese interests are paying about $19m for the Dubai-listed shipowner's 46,000-dwt Gulf Mirdif (built 2010), according to several shipbroking reports published over the past week.
The vessel, which was constructed at South Korea's SLS Shipbuilding, is due for its special survey in July this year.
The Gulf Mirdif was originally built as part of Gulf Navigation’s partnership with Stolt-Nielsen in a Middle East parcel trade service operated under the banner of Gulf-Stolt Tankers. The vessel was fitted with 29 separate liquid tanks, seven more than are usually found in conventional MR tankers of a similar size.
The Gulf-Stolt partnership petered out a few years back and more recently the ship has been operated out on charter. It has recently spent time in South American waters, but is currently heading to South Korea based on its latest position reports.
Gulf Navigation, whose investor relations department did not respond to requests for comment, will be left with five medium-range chemical tankers including an identical sistership to the Gulf Mirdif. The remaining four are conventional 45,000-dwt chemical tankers.
Tanker brokers said that these five vessels are mostly operated on charter to Saudi Arabian companies such as Saudi Basic Industries Corp or SABIC.
Rarely a seller
Never an asset player, Gulf Navigation has largely been absent from the sale-and-purchase scene. The only two ships the company has ever put up for sale were a pair of VLCCs that were sold in 2013 after a brief but disastrous foray into the sector.
The financial repercussions of the costly VLCC continue to be felt by Gulf Navigation to this day. In its 2019 annual report released at the end of April, the company indicated that it had breached its financial covenants with its lenders for a term loan and unable to pay its outstanding debts.
However, Gulf Navigation added that its management had developed a new business plan to ensure that it could continue as a going concern.
As part of this plan, the company recently secured AED 125m ($34m) in new financing via an Islamic non-convertible sukuk private placement.
The outfit said that the sukuk proceeds would strengthen its liquidity and allow it to to proceed with its future plans and settle its outstanding liabilities.
The company also noted that lower fuel costs and increased vessel utilisation at profitable rates were also helping to improve its financial position.
