First Ship Lease Trust (FSL Trust) has reportedly sold an MR product tanker but the deal is understood to be not yet finalised.
Brokers said the Singapore-listed trust sold the 45,998-dwt FSL Osaka (built 2007) for slightly above $11m earlier this month.
Constructed by Shin Kurushima Dockyard, the Singapore-flagged ship had been trading in a Hafnia tanker pool.
No information on the buyer is available. Some market rumours suggest Indonesia’s Buana Lintas Lautan took the ship, but company managers said they would not comment on "broker talk".
When contacted, FSL Trust said the ship had not been sold and they were not in talks with Buana Lintas Lautan.
The reported price is believed to be generally in line with recent market level.
Clarksons Research said the sale price was similar to what the 50,100-dwt Nord Pearl (built 2009) achieved in December, considering the larger ship is younger and fitted with scrubber and ballast water treatment systems.
Back then, TradeWinds reported Spain’s Marflet Marine purchased the product tanker from Norden for $16m.
A London-based broker said “there is no direction” as to where the asset market is moving yet.
Vessel sales
FSL Trust has been selling vessels built in the 2000s in recent quarters in a bid to strengthen its balance sheet.
Between January and October 2020, the shipowner disposed of the 115,000-dwt aframax FSL Shanghai (built 2007) and the 109,670-dwt LR2s FSL Piraeus and FSL Perth (both built 2006). It booked a gain of $2.68m for those sales.
Separately, FSL Trust exited the container shipping segment by selling three traditional panamax boxships: the 4,250-teu FSL Eminence, FSL Elixir and YM Enhancer (all built 2008).
No price was disclosed for the en-bloc deal, but VesselsValue data showed the ships were sold for $8.2m each.
Aside from those deals for older assets, the shipowner also sold the 114,000-dwt FSL Suez and FSL Fos (both built 2021) to an unspecified Chinese lessor for nearly $58.6m.
The LR2 ships are leased back for 10 years and FSL Trust is obliged to buy them back at the end of the term.
In November, the shipowner resumed dividends to shareholders despite reporting a decline in third-quarter net profit.
“With the continuous impact of the pandemic weighing on the world economy and the shipping markets, our focus on streamlining the vessel portfolio and reducing the financial risk over the last years has proven right,” Stathis Topouzoglou, the trust’s chairman, said then.
Jonathan Boonzaier contributed to this article.
