Singapore’s High Court will make a second attempt to auction the four-ship fleet of defunct bunker tanker operator Vermont UM Shipping.
The 5,000-dwt Angel Sun (built 2006), 7,000-dwt Angel Moon (built 2011), 6,500-dwt Angel Star and 6,800-dwt Ansheng (both built 2012), will be sold via sealed tender auction, with bids due 15 August at the Sheriff of Singapore’s office. They are all small product tankers fitted out to operate in the marine fuels trade.
An auction attempt held at the end of June attracted a large number of prospective buyers. Hopes that the quartet would bring in as much as $28m based on then current market estimates were frustrated when none of the bids met the minimum reserve set by the court.
Tactics to lower prices
Such low-ball tactics are commonplace at auctions where buyers who, while keen to buy a ship, have no pressing need to acquire it immediately and are willing to wait until a second auction is arranged, where a lower reserve price is invariably set.
Unlike many European legal jurisdictions, Singapore’s High Court does not publicly reveal the reserve price prior to the auction.
Mortgage holder Maybank arrested the Vermont UM Shipping fleet in April. The legal action came after parent company Vermont UM Bunkering, a marine fuels supplier, was stripped of its operating licences after the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore found discrepancies and wrongful declarations in records kept onboard its bunkering vessels.
Local broking sources say there is always strong demand for modern bunker tankers in the city-state, one of the world’s busiest bunkering locations.
