Clients of Denmark’s Dee4 Capital Partners have bought a five-year-old MR tanker as the firm continues a busy drive in the market for tanker tonnage.
Dee4 chief executive Carsten Mortensen confirmed the deal for the 49,000-dwt Nord Valiant (built 2016), adding that the tanker will be owned by Dee4 Capital Fund K/S, a limited partnership.
The ship changed hands for $26.5m, according to US brokers.
The Nord Valiant is listed in the fleet of Top Ships, a Nasdaq-listed shipowner backed by Greece's Evangelos Pistiolis. The vessel is owned by Bank of Communications Financial Leasing (BoComm Leasing), which acquired it in a sale-and-leaseback deal in December 2018 for $21.7m.
The tanker, constructed at Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding, is due for special survey in August, when its ongoing one-year, $18,400-per-day charter with Norden expires.
Dee4's move to buy the vessel comes less than a month after clients of the company inked three 50,000-dwt tankers at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD), bringing the company's orderbook at the South Korean shipyard to five MR tankers.
The vessels are said to be costing $34m to $35m.
The first two ships in that series were booked by joint venture E4C, which includes footwear maker ECCO and trader Gunvor Group. The subsequent trio was booked by other clients of Dee4, Mortensen said in March.
Dee4 is a private equity firm launched by Mortensen and fellow dealmaker Freddie Lee in 2019. The firm focuses on maritime-related investments. Its investors are mostly from Denmark.
Dee4 has six MR tankers on the water. Three are on charter to Gunvor, two to Norden an one operating in a Hafnia pool. All ships are built in Japan, between 2006 and 2011.
Mortensen, a shipping veteran, served as chief executive and president of Danish shipping giant Norden between 2005 and 2014.
Managers at Top Ships declined to comment on the Nord Valiant deal. The tanker was the oldest ship in the company's managed fleet and had been trading in Norden's Norient Product Pool immediately after its delivery as a newbuilding.
Its sale leaves Top Ships with an ultra-modern fleet of seven tankers in the water and another five under construction. Top Ships' oldest vessel was built in 2019.
Harry Papachristou contributed to this article.
