Navig8 has confirmed it has won Greece’s Transmed Shipping as a client, announcing it has taken the company’s single and recently acquired VLCC under management.
The 319,400-dwt Atherina (built 2011) has entered its VL8 pool, Navig8 said on its website. The ship becomes the 20th committed VLCC to join the fleet, according to the statement.
This was not the first Transmed vessel to be entrusted to Navig8.
The 152,000-dwt Zeno (built 2003) — a suezmax widely believed to be controlled by the Mylonas family company — will also enter the pool operator's fleet, as TradeWinds reported earlier this month. Navig8 has since confirmed the move, even though it has not yet displayed the vessel on its website.
Transmed, predominantly a dry bulk player, acquired the Atherina and Zeno last year. They were the secretive company’s first tanker investments since at least 2007.
Entrusting their management to Navig8 may reflect Transmed’s inexperience in running such tankers in recent years, or a decision to hold on to them for a short time for possible asset play.
Transmed, a Greek-Cypriot company, has been down this road before. In 2007, it acquired the 285,900-dwt VLCC Nuri (built 1992) from what was then BW Shipping for a reported $39m. It did not hold on to the vessel for long, flipping it five months later for a $7m profit to German buyers, who then converted the ship to an ore carrier.
It looks like Transmed could pull off a similar trick with the Atherina. The company spent about $45m to purchase the ship last summer. VesselsValue shows the ship is worth more than $50m today.
An ore-oiler known as F Whale at the time, the Atherina was the last in a series of vessels originally ordered by Taiwanese shipowner Nobu Su. Hyundai Heavy Industries later arrested the ship as the empire of the now jailed Su collapsed.
