StealthGas, a major owner of small and midsize gas carriers (MGC), has flipped one of its larger vessels at a fat profit.

According to shipping sources, a sale deal was concluded for the 35,200-cbm Eco Evoluzione (built 2010) at a price of $39m.

This is one of two MGCs that StealthGas currently owns through a joint venture with unknown partners.

Brokers reported last week that the second ship in that joint venture, the 35,200-cbm Gaschem Bremen (built 2010), had been sold as well at the same price.

TradeWinds, however, understands that just the Eco Evoluzione is changing hands. The ship’s buyers are believed to be based in Turkey and they will take delivery of the Eco Evoluzione in April.

StealthGas does not comment on its sale-and-purchase activity outside official press releases and stock exchange statements.

A sale of the Eco Evoluzione would represent a remarkable asset play for StealthGas principal Harry Vafias and his partners.

The StealthGas JV had purchased the vessel about three years ago, in January 2020, for just $26m.

Vafias and partners are known to have flipped another two MGCs at considerable profit recently.

As TradeWinds already reported, the JV sold in early 2021 the 35,000-cbm Gaschem Hamburg (renamed Green Pioneer, built 2010) to Japanese interests for $34m.

That was $8m over the amount Vafias and partners had spent to acquire the vessel the previous year.

A separate StealthGas JV repeated the trick in July 2022 with an asset play for the 38,500-cbm Eco Nebula (renamed Manta Salacak, built 2007). Turkey’s Manta Denizcilik spent $27.75m on the ship, three years after Vafias and partners acquired it for $20m.

StealthGas has also been selling some of its small LPG carriers recently — which it owns fully, outside any joint-venture structure.

The sales of the small LPG carriers, however, are not asset plays but part of a fleet renewal process in which Vafias shakes out his oldest vessels and replaces them with bigger and younger tonnage.

US-listed StealthGas — an owner of about 35 small LPG carriers in the water — reported last month a record annual profit of $34.3m, underpinned by robust demand for its vessels.