Embiricos family company Aeolos Management has concluded the fourth sale of an ageing VLCC this year in a spree that has raised about $100m in proceeds.
The latest deal for the 319,400-dwt VLCC Skopelos (built 2002) is being concluded in the teeth of a bleak freight market for such ships.
The transaction has been made possible by continued buying interest from little-known Asian buyers, who may be earmarking the vessels for special, captive employment. Such buyers may also be interested in storage tonnage to take advantage of the widening contango spread between current and forward oil prices.
Several brokers in Greece, the UK and the US said Embiricos has struck a deal to sell the Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries-built Skopelos to an unidentified outfit in Malaysia for between $25m and $26m.
However, other market sources in Athens said the ship has gone to Chinese interests instead and they pinpoint its price at $25.3m.
Managers at both Aeolos and Andros Maritime — the outfit’s London-based affiliate — did not respond to a request for comment.
A sale of the Skopelos would hardly come as a surprise. VLCC specialist Aeolos has been cutting the size of its fleet for months in deals with Far Eastern buyers.
Three such sales have already been confirmed this year.
In early October, the company agreed to sell its oldest unit — the 298,900-dwt VLCC Chryssi (built 2000) — reportedly for $22m.
The Chryssi has recently emerged as Arcadia V under the operations of Hong Kong-based Aurora Shipping. The IHS Markit database said Aurora was established in 2019 and has just two chartered-in vessels in its fleet, including the Arcadia V.
Another recently established Chinese outfit without a known background picked up the 281,000-dwt Kalamos (built 2000), which Aeolos sold in May for about $25m.
That vessel has since emerged as the Alisha under the technical management of All Win Ship Management, a China-based one-ship company.
Aeolos concluded a more lucrative sale in February, when it offloaded the 306,000-dwt Astipalaia (built 2001) to Japanese conversion specialists Modec for at least $26.5m. The ship has been renamed Astipal.
Assuming the company has now sold the Skopelos as well, its fleet will have shrunk to six VLCCs, built between 2001 and 2004.
If Embiricos continues on its sales drive, the next ship to likely go would be its oldest vessel, the 305,900-dwt Kos (built 2001).
Aeolos is far from being the only Greek company to be selling ageing VLCC tonnage. Onassis family-controlled Olympic Shipping and Management, a company that tends to offload ships that are more than 15 years old, reached an initial agreement in October to sell the 309,000-dwt Olympic Liberty (built 2003), reportedly for between $25.5m and $26m.
Thailand’s Nathalin Group was linked to that deal but TradeWinds understands that the ship’s potential buyers are Europeans instead.
Another example is Moundreas family company NGM Energy, which in October reportedly parted with the 309,200-dwt Voyager I (built 2003) to Middle Eastern buyers. The ship fetched about the same price as the Olympic Liberty.
European brokers said late in October that Pantheon Tankers was in the process of selling the 318,000-dwt Sea Lion (built 2003) to an undisclosed Chinese owner.
