A highly competitive live online auction on Thursday to sell an Advantage Tankers suezmax saw it sold for a much higher price than a previous attempt in April.
The 156,700-dwt Advantage Sky (built 2010) was sold at a South African auction for nearly $25.3m, a price very close to the $27m that VesselsValue estimates the ship would be worth in an open-market transaction.
The identity of the buyer has yet to be officially announced.
TradeWinds understands that nine registered bidders from Asia, Europe and the US logged in to the auction that was conducted by South African auctioneer firm Solution Strategists.
Investment pays off
While most ships sold at auction are sold at a significant discount to their estimated market value due to the risks associated with acquiring them on an as-is basis, efforts to keep the Advantage Sky maintained and in class throughout its prolonged period of idleness while under arrest clearly paid off.
The price is also substantially higher than the $18.8m the ship was sold for at a poorly attended auction held in April that subsequently failed.
That event saw the ship change hands for $18.8m to GH Prod XII LLC, a distant affiliate of Hayfin Capital Management, which as holder of the mortgage had also placed an arrest against it.
The sale, which required any buyer to continue with a pre-existing charter to Shell, failed to consummate after the oil major and GH Prod could not reach an agreement within the allotted 30 days about which technical managers would be appointed to operate the ship.
The Kwazulu-Natal Division of the High Court of South Africa later turned down an offer by APT Suez, an entity that allegedly had an established relationship with Shell, to buy the Advantage Sky. That proposed deal would have taken place through a private purchase subject to a substitute charterparty with Shell being concluded within 30 days.
The court instead decided that it was in the best interests of all creditors if it was sold via public auction, without the shackles of a Shell charter attached. That charter was seen as discouraging at least eight potential buyers that had expressed an interest in the run-up to the first auction.
