Belgian tanker owner Euronav has sold its Greece-based ship management arm to Anglo-Eastern as the two sides “join forces”.
The Brussels and New York-listed company said a heads of agreement has been signed for Euronav Ship Management Hellas (ESMH).
No financial details were revealed, but Euronav said the Hong Kong group will assume ship management responsibilities for the vessels currently overseen by ESMH on an “as is” basis.
“This transaction will provide Anglo-Eastern with a strong local presence in the Greek market while also greatly enhancing its footprint in large crude oil tankers,” a statement read.
Post-integration, ESMH will become part of Anglo-Eastern’s “vast” global network, offering the combined entity a wide range of growth opportunities in different regions and ship types, the partners added.
Bjorn Hojgaard, chief executive of Anglo-Eastern, emphasised the mutually beneficial nature of the deal.
Both companies will be able to “focus on what they do best”, he said.
The agreement “reflects Euronav’s utmost confidence in Anglo-Eastern’s ability to deliver as a ship manager and wider initiatives related to safety, quality, digitalisation, crew training and decarbonisation,” he added.
Euronav CEO Alexander Saverys said his company already has a strong collaboration with Anglo-Eastern.
“This combination will further enhance our business relations, offering plenty of new opportunities for our company and our people,” he added.
Set up in Athens
ESMH, established in Athens in 2005, handles the trading of oceangoing tankers for Euronav and oversees newbuilding construction.
Ship management includes crewing, technical, procurement, accounting, safety and quality assurance.
Euronav and the Saverys’ clean shipping company CMB.Tech together own around 150 vessels, including newbuildings.
The fleet also includes bulkers, container ships, chemical tankers and offshore wind vessels.
The group’s name will change to CMB.Tech after a shareholder vote.
Anglo-Eastern has more than 650 ships under full technical management, about 500 vessels under crew management and almost 1,000 newbuildings and conversions under supervision.
The workforce consists of more than 37,000 seafarers and 2,100 shore employees.
A pattern is emerging in which the Saverys family is divesting non-shipowning segments of the Euronav group.
In January, Danish optimisation service ZeroNorth bought Euronav’s Fleet Automatic Statistics & Tracking (FAST) platform.
As part of the deal, the Saverys family-controlled tanker owner also became a customer of ZeroNorth’s full platform offering.
FAST gathers real-time, advanced high-frequency data from sensors deployed across Euronav’s fleet of VLCCs and suezmaxes.
The platform then uses this information to boost voyage and ship optimisation, improving collaboration between vessels and all shore departments.
The service has reduced fuel consumption and lowered operating expenses, Euronav said.
