Euronav remains a big believer in consolidation despite the failure of its tie-up with John Fredriksen’s Frontline.
Chief executive Hugo De Stoop was asked on a conference call with analysts about his thoughts on expanding market influence in the future.
“Do we believe in consolidation? Absolutely. Do we believe in growth? Absolutely,” he said.
“We do believe that going forward, the market deserves to be consolidated, can be consolidated.”
De Stoop explained that the Belgian tanker giant has been successful in forging consolidation in the past, through its own acquisitions and expansion of the Tankers International VLCC pool, which it helped found.
The pool company said in January that its fleet had grown to 66 ships by the end of 2022.
“When you look at the evolution of the pool, we have had many owners with many vessels and those same owners have the capacity to add even more vessels,” De Stoop told the call.
“So there is definitely a mandate for the pool to go out and get those fleets or even ships on [the] outside to put them into a pool because we believe that that’s fundamental for the business.
“As far as Euronav is concerned, we definitely continue to believe that bigger is better. We do believe that there are economies here that can come with it.”
Happy family
He argued that having a “one-stop shop” for all transport needs would be the ideal situation for clients: “That’s a little bit what we’re trying to do together with the pool, continuing to be a big member there.”
De Stoop had earlier compared the attempt to combine with Frontline, and its subsequent collapse into arbitration, as like a marriage and a divorce.
“If you cannot marry this beautiful lady, then let’s find someone else, and let’s make it a happy family,” he told the call.
Analysts praised the company for its earnings performance during a distracting period.
De Stoop said: “We didn’t forget to manage the business. And as a matter of fact, we have split a little bit the management team and some people are entirely focused on the business, because that’s what matters.
“And we want to continue to deliver as good results as we can.”
