Hugo De Stoop is confident a solution to Euronav’s future can be found if its two big shareholders meet around the boardroom table.
Speaking on a conference call for investors and analysts, the boss of the Belgian VLCC and suezmax owner said the chances of ending the current impasse are better if Saverys family and John Fredriksen representatives are voted in as directors next month.
The Saverys’ shipping company Compagnie Maritime Belge wants to diversify and decarbonise Euronav after blocking a merger with Fredriksen’s tanker company Frontline.
CMB is seeking to remove the five current supervisory board directors at a meeting on 23 March.
Both big shareholders, with 25% each, are aiming to place two representatives on the board, as well as three other independent candidates in CMB’s case.
De Stoop said he hopes shipowner Marc Saverys and CMB chief financial officer Patrick De Brabandere succeed in taking a seat so they can explain their strategy.
“If, unfortunately, they continue to oppose mergers that we would want to do in the future, that would be problematic,” he admitted.
“Buying them out is probably not the best use of capital. We would need to find other solutions, but every problem has a solution.”
De Stoop said the other 50% of shareholders are crucial if CMB and Fredriksen cancel each other out in the vote.
“When the three main parties are around a table and directors of the company with a duty to act in its best interests, we will find solutions,” the chief executive added.
“This is for me the blue sky, but we have to wait for spring and summer. We won’t find a solution overnight.
Every vote counts
“Exercise your right, come and vote and we will respect the outcome, whatever that is,” he told investors.
De Stoop also claimed that arbitration over the merits of Frontline’s decision to pull out of the merger in January will take a long time: “It is not going to be quick — several months, if not years.”
He explained that if Fredriksen and his other board nominee, shipping investor Cato Stonex, take board seats, they will have to recuse themselves and leave the room if the subject of the arbitration is discussed.
As for future expansion deals, he said: “We continue to believe growth is of strategic importance.
“There are many transactions we can do in the market and have done in the past.”
De Stoop said the tanker sector is facing an “interesting” multi-year cycle.
“But with a good cycle come very high values,” he said.
“We have always tried to time acquisitions when values were not as high as today.
“There is no reason not to be as disciplined in the future as we’ve been in the past.”
