Samos Steamship has divested its oldest tanker to an unidentified Greek peer, barely one month after circulating the 14-year-old aframax as a sale candidate.
The 105,300-dwt Nectar (built 2005) fetched between $15.5m and $15.9m, according to brokers in Greece and the US. Managers at Samos Steamship did not respond to a request for comment on reports of the transaction.
Samos Steamship has been operating the tanker ever since taking delivery of it as a newbuilding from Sumitomo. Brokers reported it was a sale candidate at the end of June.
If a deal for the Nectar has indeed been concluded, it wouldn’t be the first tanker the Inglessis family-controlled company has shed this year. In May, Athens-based Samos Steamship sold the 50,100-dwt MR tanker Mariposa (built 2010) to members of the Papadakis family for between $17.5m and $18m.
Some Athens brokers said that Samos Steamship also agreed to sell a second MR tanker — the 47,300-dwt Papillon (built 2007) — at the time. That deal, however, has not been confirmed.
The tanker sales probably reflect a fleet renewal drive. Samos Steamship took delivery of three product tanker newbuildings over the past two years. In May it ordered yet another tanker, a suezmax.
The sales, however, may also be due to the company shifting some of its resources to the dry bulk carrier market, which has been heating up over the past weeks.
Last month, Samos Steamship was linked to the purchase of the 182,300-dwt capesize Global Mercator (built 2011) at a price of $26.2m. If confirmed, it would be the first dry bulk carrier the company has bought on the sale-and-purchase market in more than two years. In January, Samos Steamship also took delivery of a kamsarmax newbuilding, the 82,100-dwt Ormos (built 2019).
Samos Steamship is listed with a mixed fleet of at least 26 ships, consisting of 16 tankers and ten dry bulk carriers.
