Offshore service provider Altera Infrastructure and Sweden’s Stena Bulk are dissolving their shipowning ties as they move to sell their last jointly held tanker.
The deal doesn’t seem to be directly linked with Altera’s move more than a month ago to file for a Chapter 11 restructuring in the US.
That restructuring explicitly excludes the company’s joint ventures in shuttle tankers and in floating production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSOs).
The sale of the 151,200-dwt Nordic Rio (built 2004) seems rather to be motivated by Altera and Stena’s desire to cash in on rising tanker values, while limiting exposure to tankers that will find it increasingly expensive to comply with ever tighter environmental rules.
The two partners, which own 50% of the Nordic Rio each, are trying to sell the ship and are currently working to finalise a deal, Stena Bulk chief executive Erik Hanell told TradeWinds.
Hanell didn’t elaborate on the reasons for the intended sale or on the price levels it is negotiated.
Clarksons reported on 23 September that a deal to sell the vessel has already been concluded with undisclosed buyers at a price of about $26m.
“We have [in] the last couple of years sold… our more experienced ships in our fleet, and this is the last one we own together,” Hanell said in an e-mail.
Altera managers didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Aberdeen-based owner has already announced on 4 August it had sold other shuttle tankers, floating storage and offloading units (FSOs) and towage vessels.
The company then missed a bond payment and on 15 August it announced entering a pre-arranged Chapter 11 restructuring in the US.
The restructuring is supported by most of its secured lenders and by its majority owner Brookfield Asset Management.
Altera said it would continue to operate normally during the restructuring and that its joint ventures through Altera Shuttle Tankers and its FPSO units were no part of that process.
The Nordic Rio apart, Altera lists just two 50%-held vessels on its website — the 105,400-dwt Cidade de Itajai (built 1985) and the 130,600-dwt Pioneiro de Libra (built 1995).
The company fully owns all other 21 shuttle tankers, four FPSOs, two FSOs and eight towing ships on its fleet list.
Thought scrapped, now trading
The sale of the Nordic Rio comes amid ongoing robust transaction activity in the secondhand market for tankers, which saw several other large units sold as well.
Brokers in Greece, the UK and the US report at least another three large tankers sold in recent days.
Two of them were VLCCs.
Bahri of Saudi Arabia is said to be selling the 316,800-dwt Hilwah (built 2002), a 20-year-old ship with a special survey due in December, to Chinese interests for between $37m and $38m.
Even more telling for the heady state markets are currently in is the case of the 310,100-dwt Viki (ex-Niki, built 2000).
That vessel was supposed to go for demolition in a $27m deal reported last May. Its cash buyer GMS, however, is now reportedly flipping it for further trading at a higher price of $29.5m.
