Italy’s d’Amico International Shipping (DIS) has torn up a ship sale agreed in April after Greek owner Evangelos Marinakis failed to hand over the vessel in time.
The Milan-listed company said it cancelled a memorandum of agreement originally signed on 9 April for the 50,000-dwt MR tanker Amfitrion (built 2017), acquired from the tycoon’s Capital Maritime & Trading.
This was because of the “sellers’ failure to comply with the latest possible delivery date of the vessel”, DIS added.
TradeWinds understands the ship was delayed by seven days on its current voyage, due to its current charterer.
Chief executive Carlos Balestra di Mottola said he regretted announcing the move, made following the company’s contractual rights.
“We have already requested the full reimbursement of the 10% deposit, which is currently held in an escrow account,” he added.
“At the same time, we will continue to actively monitor the market for new promising opportunities, which we are confident will emerge in the future,” the CEO said.
The sale was set to be a lucrative one for Marinakis. The Greek company had agreed to offload the vessel at a considerably higher price than it paid to order it 10 years ago.
The price reported in April by TradeWinds was $43.5m. The MR2 has been trading with Capital since its delivery.
Ordered for just $35m
TradeWinds reported in December 2013 that Marinakis paid about $35m to book the vessel amid a string of MR sister ship orders at Samsung Heavy Industries’ Ningbo yard.
VesselsValue estimated the tanker was worth $38m back in April.
The purchase premium made sense, with tanker buyers at the time resigning themselves to pay higher prices amid a lack of suitable acquisition targets in the market.
The Amfitrion was to become the first third-party ship bought by DIS after a string of attractively priced purchase options exercised for vessels it was already operating.
Then-CEO Paolo d’Amico said the vessel aligned perfectly with the company’s long-term strategy of owning and operating a fleet comprised of young and efficient product tankers.
