This year has turned into an extraordinarily busy one in the secondhand market for Greece’s Moundreas shipping family, both on the tanker and bulker fronts.
As TradeWinds reported this week, market sources in the UK and Greece have identified Moundreas company NGM Energy as buyer of Varde Partners' 319,000-dwt VLCC Energy R (built 2003) at a price ranging between $32m and $35m.
The Energy R, however, is not the only vessel NGM has agreed to buy. TradeWinds understands that the Greek company is also behind a deal for another 16-year-old crude carrier, the 105,500-dwt Ever Rich No 18 (built 2003).
Hong Kong’s Winson Oil was believed to have sold that vessel as early as in June in a $14.3m deal. A sale at that level would already have yielded a handsome $1.6m profit for Winson Oil, which acquired the Sumitomo Heavy Industries-built ship in February last year for merely $12.7m.
Winson, however, looks set to realise an even bigger profit now. Broker reports indicate the Ever Rich No 18 was sold for $14.5m. There are even rumours that the vessel may have fetched close to $17m. Managers at NGM Energy and Winson Oil were not available to comment.
Moundreas has been a prolific, across-the-board buyer and seller of ships this year, with a keen eye for bargain buys and asset plays.
Its buying spree this year has even expanded to capesizes. As TradeWinds reported back in May, it purchased the 170,000-dwt Cape Maria (built 2005). It now transpires that Moundreas also bought another capesize reported sold at the time, the 180,200-dwt Nord Steel (built 2007), which fetched close to $18m.
Jonathan Boonzaier contributed to this article
