Donald Trump’s Twitter feed contributed to a mixed start for shipowning newcomer Faerder Tankers, but its experienced executive team is looking to close additional business before the end of this year.
Former Nordic American Tankers (NAT) executives Turid Moe Sorensen and Captain Paal Stenberg launched Faerder this spring with a plan to order eight suezmax newbuildings backed by an $80m equity issue.
While Trump’s trade war derailed that deal, Faerder does have an early feather in its cap from another piece of tanker business.
After ordering a pair of suezmax newbuildings in South Korea, they were sold at a profit to Greek shipowner John Angelicoussis.
Unknown next move
Faerder chief executive Stenberg told TradeWinds that the company is now working on fresh projects, and its next move may not necessarily be in the strengthening suezmax market.
“There is likely to be more business concluded this year,” he said, knowing from experience that it may take longer than expected to finalise deals.
Faerder first emerged on the shipping scene in April this year, with the new vehicle looking to raise $80m with the support of Fearnley Securities.
The capital was earmarked for an order of four firm and four optional suezmax tankers at Dalian Shipyard in China, as TradeWinds reported at the time.
The ships had a price tag of $56m each. The project came during a period in which other newcomers were targeting the VLCC market, but the suezmax space was not receiving the same counter-cyclical attention.
Shipbroker Clarksons now prices suezmax newbuildings at $60.5m, suggesting Faerder had spotted an opportunity few others were willing to take.
The first two Faerder newbuildings were on subjects for a long-term charter contract with an oil company. While Sorensen told TradeWinds in May that the project was close to the finishing line, it ultimately did not go ahead.
Trump’s threat to boycott Chinese oil as a trade war with China was ratcheting up and the charterer got cold feet and pulled out, TradeWinds is told.
“It was Donald Trump’s twittering that killed that deal,” Stenberg said. “We did not consider this a defeat, this was the first chapter for Faerder.”
Undeterred, the newcomer turned to South Korea and ordered two 158,000-dwt tankers at Daehan Shipbuilding for $60m each.
As TradeWinds reported earlier this month, those tankers were sold on to Angelicoussis’ Maran Tankers at a reported $62m each as suezmax rates joined in a wider tanker-market rally during the fourth quarter.
Stenberg declined to comment on the figures, which suggest the asset play returned a profit of around $4m in just a few months. But he confirmed that the company has logged a surplus on the tankers.
Jointly owned company
Despite initial plans for a public vehicle, Faerder is now owned on a 50:50 basis by Stenberg and Sorensen.
The company has offices in the same building as diversified Hesnes group on the island of Notteroy in the Norwegian minicipality of Faerder, just south of Tonsberg.
Sorensen is enthusiastic about having a local maritime cluster with Hesnes, which is involved in open-hatch bulkers, car carriers, gas and oil trading.
She has 30 years of shipping experience and said she had no plans of becoming a shipowner herself when she left NAT last year.
While it is unusual these days for a Norwegian shipowner to have the title of captain, this is natural for Stenberg. He has served on both crude and chemical tankers, and has been employed by both Stolt-Nielsen, the Belgian Rutten family’s Transpetrol and Ugland Nordic Shipping.
