Societe d’Armement et de Transport (Socatra) has raked in about $15.75m from the sale of an MR tanker, bringing to three the number of such ships the French company has recently offloaded to Greek interests, in straight sale-and-purchase deals or resales.
TradeWinds already reported in April how the Bordeaux-based company raised $69.6m by selling two of the four MR newbuildings it had under construction at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD).
That deal seems to have gone hand in hand with the sale of another Socatra vessel on the water.
The company’s 37,700-dwt Agena (built 2011) passed on 24 June under the management of Greece’s Leon Shipping & Trading and was renamed Leon Poseidon. The ship’s sale was agreed at the end of April at $15.75m, according to London-based brokers.
Some brokers reported that Socatra sold sistership Adara to Leon Shipping as well but TradeWinds understands this is not the case.
Managers at both Leon Shipping and Socatra did not respond to a request for comment.
Socatra has two MR newbuildings under construction at HMD in South Korea, its favoured yard for such vessels, and one more vessel under construction in Romania.
Led by group chief executive officer Laurent Bozzoni, Socatra describes itself on its website as “the last French oil shipowner” — a claim which online shipping directories confirm when it comes to larger, oceangoing vessels.
Greeks hungry for midsize tankers
The purchase of the Agena increases the size of Leon Shipping's MR fleet to three ships. The Panos Efthimiadis-controlled company also manages one LR1 and one small chemical tanker.
The low-profile outfit had not bought a vessel in the secondhand market for nearly two years.
Its recent expansion is part of a slow but persistent trickle of Greek interest in midsize tankers, in the teeth of sagging freight rates.
In another sign of the relative robustness of the S&P market for such ships, Clarksons' average trend prices for 10-year-old 37,000-dwt tankers jumped to $15.75m in the week to 9 July from $14m in the previous week.
In another midsize tanker deal that comes to the fore, Vardinoyiannis company Avin International has acquired the 76,600-dwt LR tanker BW Amazon (built 2006).
Brokers reported Hafnia as selling the BW Amazon on 29 June to undisclosed buyers at an undisclosed price. Delivery of the Chinese-built ship to its new owners seems to have been wrapped up very quickly, with IHS Markit showing the BW Amazon already in Avin’s fleet under its new name, Kriti State.
Coral Shipping is another expanding Greek tanker player who is adding another tanker as well.
US-based brokers have identified Coral as the Greek party who acquired Shoei Kisen Kaisha’s 48,000-dwt MR2 New Breeze (built 2010) for about $15.5m. Company managers did not respond to a request for comment.
John Kilakos-led Coral last made headlines earlier this year with the purchase of a larger ship from Norway’s DSD Shipping. After some initial confusion about which DSD vessel Coral actually bought, the 105,400-dwt Stavanger Eagle (built 2009) emerged in its fleet and is now trading as Prosperous.
An original version of this article was amended to take account of the fact that the only the MR tanker Agena was sold and not the Adara
