Singapore-based AG Shipping & Energy confirmed to TradeWinds this week that it was the buyer of a tanker that previously had been reported sold to Japan's Iino Marine for $25.3m.
AG founding director Mangish Kakodkar said that the company has just taken delivery of the 105,000-dwt tanker Glory Crescent (built 2013) and has renamed it AG Neptune.
The ship has been placed on long-term period charter to commodities giant Koch Industries. Kakodkar did not disclose the duration or rate of the charter.
Koch, with whom Kakodkar held a senior management position in Singapore before leaving in late 2017 to set up AG Shipping, is also the charterer the company’s first tanker, the 50,000-dwt Mars (built 2006), which was acquired from Empire Navigation of Greece for $15m in April.
The AG Mars was time chartered to Koch for a year with options to extend for up to two years.
Kakodkar said he had no plans to stop at just two ships, and continues to look for other vessel acquisition opportunities ahead of what he believes will be better times for the tanker sector.
He described the tanker sector faced as being in an interesting phase.
“The market is still not performing, but owners are still not parting with their assets. Most are waiting for the post 2020 period, which they think will see a strong improvement. At the same time charterers want to take in vessels, but not many owners are willing to fix post 2020”.
Kakodkar claims to also have bullish sentiments about the post-2020 tanker environment, hence his interest in buying more ships.
“We are no longer in that dull, long period in which nothing happens. I think we can look forward to some very interesting times in the future,” he said
Kakodkar, who was head of commercial operations at Maersk Inc in New York between 2010 and 2014, is believed to have tapped private equity cash to finance the start up of AG Shipping. Some well-placed industry sources have suggested that Oaktree Capital Management is the main backer.
