Lenders led by Germany’s DVB Bank have clinched a $100m deal to offload four suezmaxes, according to brokers in Athens.
The Moundreas family's NGM will buy two of the ships for a reported $50m in total, while the remaining pair is said to have sold to undisclosed Greek buyers at the same price and may return to the fold of Greek peer Stamatis Molaris, the sources said.
Molaris originally ordered all four units — the 158,600-dwt sisterships Suez Fuzeyya, Suez Vasilis, Suez Hans and Suez Rajan (all built 2011) — at Hyundai Heavy Industries.
The deal follows December's announcement that shrinking maritime financier DVB Bank will disappear as a brand after a merger with its parent, DZ Bank.
All four vessels are featured in the fleet list of Molaris company Empire Navigation, which also manages MR tankers.
Around the time the ships were delivered, TradeWinds reported they had been fixed on lucrative seven-year contracts with Sanko Steamship of Japan, which later cancelled the deals to shore up its finances.
Empire claimed at the time that it was owed nearly $1m in charter payments on the Suez Rajan and the Suez Hans alone.
Unavoidable losses
TradeWinds is told that lenders, which include DVB Bank and BNP Paribas, took control of the vessels in 2014 or 2015. They added that a sale had not materialised sooner largely due to a lack of understanding between the lenders on how to share the unavoidable losses on a deal.
Buying interest has been muted amid recent weak tanker markets. The four vessels require significant investment as they are all due for special survey later this year. None of them are equipped with scrubbers and Clarksons lists only the Suez Hans as having a ballast water treatment system.
The Suez Fuzeyya and the Suez Vasilis have been idling in the South China Sea, just on the limit of the territorial waters off Malaysia.
Empire Navigation, NGM Energy and DVB did not respond to a request for comment.
Jonathan Boonzaier contributed to this story
