Samos Energy, a London-based company that broke into shipping with offshore and oil production investments last year, is believed to be expanding into bulkers.
The firm, which is led by managing partners Jacques Tohme and Charles Furness-Smith, is said to be acquiring the 95,700-dwt post-panamax CMB Pomerol (built 2012) for about $21m.
Tohme declined to comment on the deal first reported by London brokers, citing company policy to “only comment on completed transactions”.
However, he confirmed that Samos Energy’s “growing global team is actively pursuing acquisitions of traditional energy assets in the Americas and Asia”.
Scope of investment
Asked to clarify whether bulkers fall into that category, Tohme said that “theoretically [bulkers] would be under our scope as we look at traditional energy-related infrastructure”.
The name of the CMB Pomerol suggests the ship forms part of Bocimar, the bulker arm of the Saverys clan’s Compagnie Maritime Belge.
Equasis and S&P Global indeed list the ship under Bocimar after delivery from Imabari Shipbuilding in 2012.
In 2020, however, it seems to have switched ownership without changing its name, with Hong Kong-based Win Blue Shipping and Sanasia Management listed as its owners and managers.
A purchase by Samos Energy would mark a considerable widening of the company’s scope. It first made headlines last year with the purchase of three offshore production vessels under charter in Asia from a joint venture between UK oil and gas services company Petrofac and US fund BlackRock.
The deal involved two floating production, storage and offloading units, the 100,000-dwt FPF 003 (ex-Jasmine Venture MV7, built 1976) and 188,000-dwt Lewek Emas (built 1978), plus the mobile oil production unit West Desaru (built 1976).
These have been the company’s only assets so far, according to its website.
