Buana Lintas Lautan (BULL) is believed to be spending more than $80m to enlarge its fleet with two pairs of aframax and long-range 2 (LR2) product tankers.
The reported deals come on top of an already impressive string of acquisitions that saw the Indonesian company buy six tankers since last December at a total estimated cost of nearly $70m.
Several brokers report BULL as the party purchasing the 109,700-dwt sisterships FSL Piraeus and FSL Perth (both built 2006), which Stathis Topouzoglou-led FSL Trust has already confirmed selling earlier this week to an unidentified party.
Market sources estimate the two ships fetched around $20m each.
Separately, BULL is said to be also close to acquiring a pair of aframaxes from Greece’s Capital Maritime. An agreement has already been concluded for the 113,600-dwt Aristodimos and Amore Mio (both built 2006) at $21.5m each, market sources in Athens said. UK-based brokers, however, said that a deal for the pair was still on subjects.
Managers at Piraeus-based Capital did not respond to a request for comment. A deal at these levels, however, would represent a brilliant asset play for the Evangelos Marinakis-led company.
Capital acquired the two vessels late last year from BP at a much lower price of between $13.5m and $14.3m, according to different market sources at the time. Flipping the ships to BULL now would yield a 50% profit for the Greek company.
BULL was looking to raise $84.3m in a share sale earlier this year with a view to build a war chest for expansion. It has bought six tankers since the end of last year, from Greek players Product Shipping & Trading and Horizon Tankers, Britain’s Union Maritime, Norway’s Arendals and Denmark’s Trom.
Kevin Wong, the company’s president-director stressed to TradeWinds that his company had a strong desire to grow its fleet.
Briefly blacklisted last year by Pertamina due to documentation problems on its tankers, BULL was quickly back in the Indonesian oil major’s favor.
A spokesperson for BULL was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.
