Greece's Cosmoship Maritime has taken over its first tanker, adding a VLCC to its managed fleet.
The company and its partners have acquired the 309,300-dwt Pantariste (built 2002), according to the company’s website. The South Korean-built vessel appears as part of its fleet under the new name of Fos.
George Fournaris, managing director of Cosmoship Maritime, confirmed a transaction took place for the ship at a price level of $23.25m.
In addition to participating in the ownerhip of the vessel, Cosmoship Maritime is manager of the Fos.
The vessel, built at Samsung Heavy Industries, was first reported sold in September last year. TradeWinds and several brokers reported at the time that the ship’s previous owner, Minerva Marine, sold it to either United Arab Emirates-based Akron Trade and Transport or to Vietnam’s Fgas for between $23.5m and $26m.
None of these deals, however, ultimately materialised. Minerva’s latest quarterly company publication presented the Pantariste as still under the company’s ownership at the end of October.
Its ultimate sale to Cosmoship Maritime and partners is part of a Minerva campaign to shed ageing tonnage, which saw the company offload six aframaxes, alongside the Pantariste.
All these ships were built between 2000 and 2003, and Andreas Martinos-led Minerva is estimated to have raised about $100m from their sale.
Minerva's sale efforts came alongside similar moves by other Martinos family companies.
Eastern Mediterranean (Eastmed), a company led by a different member of the family, was an even busier seller of tankers last year. It shed seven ships in the same age category as Minerva, for total estimated proceeds of about $130m.
Thenamaris, the third company led by a Martinos sibling, joined the trend much later. In December, it removed one of its oldest tankers, the 105,500-dwt aframax Saint Nicholas (built 2002), from its website.
The vessel has emerged since under Indian management with a new name, Saint Nicholai. This suggests a sale took place in December.
In another Greek sale of an older tanker, Moundreas family company NGM Energy is believed to have recently sold an ageing tanker. Unidentified interests reportedly bought the 105,500-dwt LR2 Amalfi (built 2003) for $11.3m.
Going on its own
Cosmoship Maritime began operations in 2018 after Greek peer Bariba, where Fournaris was a senior executive, was wound down following the death of owner Andreas Vgenopoulos.
Cosmoship Maritime then entered into a brief cooperation with compatriot Times Navigation. That cooperation ended amicably, leaving Cosmoship Maritime with two capesizes in its fleet — the 184,900-dwt Agios Charalambos (built 2003) and 185,800-dwt Agia Trias (built 2002).
The company also manages the 53,500-dwt supramax Archagelos Michael (built 2007).
Cosmoship Maritime should not be confused with Cosmoship Management, a different Piraeus company that is led by Nick Savvas and is active in bulkers and containerships.
The outfit has a common past with Thenamaris. Fournaris and part of its management team used to work at the traditional Greek shipping company.
This explains why Cosmoship Maritime has experience in managing both bulkers and tankers and is not reluctant to expand in both ship types, Fournaris explained.
