Marios Iliopoulos appears to have made his first asset play on a clutch of cruiseships he bought at bargain-basement prices last year.
Industry observers who have been closely watching the Greek ferry owner’s cruiseship moves said he has sold the oldest ship he acquired, the 46,000-gt Magellan (built 1985), for recycling in India.
Eaglepower Shipping, an Iliopoulos-linked company based in Cyprus, bought the former Cruises & Maritime Voyages (CMV) ship at auction in the UK last October for a mere $3.4m.
The vessel was dispatched to the Omani port of Duqm in late December and is said to have taken up a charter as an accommodation ship.
The ship has been anchored off the port since 11 January.
The cruiseship has been renamed Mages ahead of what sources said will be a short voyage across to Alang.
The vessel's AIS transponder on Monday reflected the name change and indicated the ship was “awaiting orders”.
The IHS Ships Register has yet to reflect the name change, nor any change of ownership or status.
A scrap sale would net Iliopoulos a good return on his investment.
According scrap industry sources, the vessel could fetch a minimum of $400 per ldt. Weighing in at 17,800 ldt, the ship could secure a minimum of $7.1m in a scrap sale at that level.
The Magellan is not the first former CMV vessel to end up at Alang after first heading to the Middle East for an accommodation role.
Highseas Ltd, a St Vincent & the Grenadines-registered entity that acquired CMV’s 22,100-gt Marco Polo (built 1965) at auction, also said last December that it was sending the ship to Dubai for a similar accommodation charter.
However, in early January, shortly after the Marco Polo dropped anchor off Dubai, it headed off to Alang where it was beached on 14 January.
Neither company revealed who the respective charterers were so TradeWinds was unable to ascertain why both charters ultimately fell through.
Asset plays
Iliopoulos is sitting on five other cruiseships that he acquired in 2020 at close to their scrap value.
With the exception of the 63,800-gt Columbus (built 1989), which was also bought at auction, these were all former Carnival Corp units and built in the mid-to-late 1990s, and are currently laid up in Greece.
Iliopoulos has never given any clear indication of his intentions for these ships.
Cruise industry sources suspect his intention are to keep them in lay-up and sell them for further trading once the cruise industry has recovered from the coronavirus.
However, brokers previously pointed out that the low cost of the vessels, sold at a time when scrap prices were very low, presented little financial risk even if they were sold for recycling.
Iliopoulos could not be reached for comment on the Magellan or his plans for the other cruiseships
Brokers said there are some smaller operators who would like to get their hands on such ships, but have been unable to secure such tonnage because they lack the cash to buy more ships.
