Greek gas carrier company Benelux Overseas is believed to be selling its sole VLGC, in what shapes up to be the first sale-and-purchase deal for a ship of its age and type this year.
Broker talk in Athens and London has it that the company agreed on subjects to dispose of the 77,300-cbm Gas Gloria (built 2001) at a price of about $43m.
Managers at Glyfada, Athens-based Benelux did not respond to a request for comment.
A sale, however, would be consistent with the fleet renewal pattern displayed by the company in recent months.
Benelux and affiliate Zeus Lines Management have already moved below the radar to sell two small gas carriers to BW Epic Kosan — an industry giant that delisted from the Oslo bourse in December to return to the private ownership of the BW Group, J Lauritzen and a group of previously existing Geneva-based shareholders including the Lykiardopulo family.
The 8,900-cbm Gas Ionian (built 2012) and the ethylene-capable, 9,000-cbm Gas Pride (built 2010) have already joined BW Epic Kosan and are currently trading in the company’s fleet as the Gas Diamond and Gas Trust, respectively.
The price at which these two ships changed hands is not known, but VesselsValue estimates that their combined worth is about $44m currently.
Benelux seems to be using some of the cash generated from secondhand sales to invest in newbuildings.
The four ships listed by the company on its website already include 40,000-cbm sister ships Gas Ammon and Gas Annax (both built 2023) — two newbuildings completed at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard last year.
Just as it was taking delivery of these two vessels, Benelux turned to CSSC Guangzhou Huangpu Wenchong to order more newbuildings — a trio of conventionally fuelled, 48,000-cbm LPG carriers due in 2026 and 2027.
The ships are believed to have cost the company a price in the mid-$60m range.
Apart from being important for Benelux alone, a sale of the Gas Gloria also carries significance for the gas carrier market as a whole.
VLGCs have been the subject of frequent dealmaking on the secondhand market but far less so for vintage ships.
If a deal is completed, the Gas Gloria would become the oldest VLGC to change hands this year, according to VesselsValue.
Vessels of that age seem to have a much more restricted range of buyers.
The last known comparable deal took place in November when undisclosed interests offloaded the 78,500-cbm Gas Gemini (built 1990).
The ship is now trading as Gas Nelly in the fleet of a Marshall Islands-based entity called Samos Maritime.
MarineTraffic currently locates the vessel in Ras Isa — a Red Sea oil terminal in the Houthi-controlled area of Yemen.
