Latsco Shipping is believed to be offloading one of its oldest gas carriers, just weeks after selling its oldest oil tanker.
Broker reports in the UK and the US are linking the Latsis family outfit to a deal for the 80,700-cbm LPG carrier Hellas Fos (built 2008).
Undisclosed buyers are said to have picked up the Hyundai Heavy Industries-built ship for about $48.5m. Latsco managers did not respond to a request for comment.
The reported transaction for the Hellas Fos, one of the three oldest ships in Latsco's fleet of 11 LPG carriers, seems to be in line with the most recent confirmed sale for a ship of that type, size and age — the 82,000-cbm Captain Markos NL (built 2006), which fetched between $42m and $43m in an August sale by US-listed Dorian LPG.
The buyers of the Captain Markos NL were not identified at the time. Equasis, however, currently lists the ship, which used to be Dorian LPG’s oldest, under the ownership of India’s Seven Island Shipping.
The Captain Markos NL, which was built at HHI as well, is trading as Pine Gas now.
Looking very much the same
Interestingly, an identical pattern emerges in another of the rare gas carrier transactions that emerged since then — that of the 35,000-cbm Gas Ray (built 2003).
The HHI-built vessel used to be the oldest ship in the managed fleet of Greece’s Prime Marine Management.
Brokers reported the Gas Ray as sold in the middle of September for about $19.5m. That ship has turned up in the fleet of Seven Islands as well, under its new name of Rose Gas.
Managers at Mumbai-based Seven Islands did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company, however, already lists the Pine Gas and the Rose Gas on its website.
Available records suggest they are the first gas carriers in the Seven Islands fleet, a company which had hitherto focused entirely on oil tankers.
It has been busy in the secondhand market this year, buying six oil carriers after selling five in 2020.
The company, which currently features 20 tankers and the two LPG carriers on its fleet list, has a history of cooperating with private equity. According to its website, in 2016 it received an investment from Wayzata Investment Partners and another one in 2019 from a unit of Fairfax Financial Holdings.
Latsis moving
Latsco and other Latsis-led companies have been active in several shipping arenas lately.
As TradeWinds reported last month, Latsco agreed to sell one of its two oldest tankers, the 51,200-dwt MR2 Hellas Explorer (built 2008), which went to Greek peers Astra Shipmanagement for $12.8m.
At the same time, Latsco took delivery of its first LNG carrier, the 174,000-cbm newbuilding Hellas Athina (built 2021), from Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries.
In a separate deal, Latsis-led asset play vehicle Ivy Shipping made its first sale, divesting the 55,900-dwt Ivy Delta (built 2011) for $20.4m to Germany’s Oskar Wehr.
