John Fredriksen-backed Avance Gas has scored a $315m profit from the sale of its very large gas carrier fleet to New York and Oslo-listed BW LPG.

Oystein Kalleklev, chief executive of Oslo-listed Avance, disclosed the capital gain from the just-announced, $1.05bn transaction in a LinkedIn post.

A $1bn deal between BW LPG and Avance Gas was struck over four weeks of peak Norwegian holiday
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As TradeWinds reported earlier on Thursday, Andreas Sohmen-Pao’s BW LPG has struck a deal to buy all of Avance’s 12 VLGCs. The transaction marks Fredriksen’s exit from the segment, although Avance will remain in the LPG space with four medium-size gas carrier newbuildings on order.

VesselsValue data shows that the company paid about $77.5m to $78.9m for six of the vessels ordered in 2019 and 2021, and it paid $75m apiece for a series of newbuildings purchased in resale deals in 2013.

The nine Avance Gas ships tracked by the valuation platform are worth $77m to $113m today.

The Norwegian company is selling the vessels below the peak of their value, but not by much.

The 91,000-cbm Avance Avior (built 2023), the most valuable of the company’s VLGCs tracked by VesselsValue, is estimated to be worth nearly $113m today.

That is below the peak of $120m in January, but well above the $103m it was worth a year ago, according to the platform’s estimates.

In his LinkedIn post, Kalleklev said there is “some further upside” because his company will be able to trade the ships for the rest of the year.

Normally August is a seasonally slow period for the VLGC market, which typically ramps up towards the winter peak.

In fact, futures contracts for voyages on the Baltic Exchange’s benchmark LPG1 route from the Middle East to Japan are priced at $74 per tonne in November and December, up from today’s spot market price of $54.17 per tonne on the same route.

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