Norwegian owner ADS Crude Carriers is in no hurry to renew its fleet despite the sale of one of its three older VLCCs.
The 290,000-dwt ADS Stratus (built 2002) went for $25.5m to an undisclosed buyer this week, leaving the two sisters, the ADS Serenade and ADS Page, in the fleet.
Asked whether the duo is now effectively up for sale, ADS Crude chairman Bjorn Tore Larsen told TradeWinds: "All the ships are always for sale if we find a good deal.
"But Plan A is to trade them. We have been very happy trading with three ships and we will be very happy to trade with two."
The chairman added: "Of course, if there is an opportunity that is good for the shareholders ... We always take an opportunistic view."
Oslo-listed ADS Crude and its parent, Arendals Dampskibsselskab (ADS), have recently signalled their intention to remain in tankers and examine investment possibilities.
But Larsen said the company would "not necessarily" be looking to renew the fleet despite the deal and the age of the remaining tankers.
"We are very open about our ambition to make good business and create good value for the shareholders, and if that means we trade with zero ships, that is what we will do," he told TradeWinds.
Larsen said he could not reveal the name of the buyer of the tanker for confidentiality reasons.
Ship will continue to trade
But he added: "Certainly it will trade. We don't know what the buyer will do with the ship, but it will continue to trade because the price is much higher than the scrap value."
The sales price outstripped VesselsValue's estimate of $24.5m, or $14.5m for scrap.
But Norwegian investment bank Cleaves Securities valued the ship at $27.3m.
"Given [the] last close share price of NOK 13.85 [$1.85], the vessel was implicitly priced at $14.6m," head of research Joakim Hannisdahl and equity research analyst Peter Michael Christensen wrote in a note to clients.
"The sale is thus highly accretive for shareholders, releasing significant value as the company was priced at a price to net asset value [NAV] of 0.52 as of last close."
Cleaves said the shipowner will have to retain about $10m to service debt.
The balance could be used towards equity distributions or share buy-backs, or retained for potential future vessel acquisitions.
Cleaves assessed the potential equity distribution from the sale as towards $15.5m.
"We believe the move is highly beneficial to shareholders and could help alleviate some of the large discount to our current NAV and mid-2021 trough NAV, both at NOK 26," the analysts said.
The VLCC trio was acquired from John Fredriksen's SFL Corp in 2018 for a combined $67.5m as the ADS spin-off debuted on the Oslo exchange.
ADS Crude fitted scrubbers to the vessels last year and then took advantage of booming markets this year to rack up healthy profits.
The shipowner had made back 68% of its $12m retrofit investment by 30 June.
