First Ship Least Trust (FSL Trust) has offloaded both chemical tankers it had trading in the spot market after their long-term charters expired earlier this year.
The Singapore-based company announced on Tuesday that it had sold the 20,000-dwt FSL London (built 2006) to an unaffiliated party. It did not disclose the buyer.
FSL Trust did not reveal any price details, either, other than to say that the buyer has already deposited 10% of the purchase price in escrow.
Several brokers said earlier this month that the ship has gone to Indonesian interests for $10m.
That is the same price at which FSL Trust sold a Japanese-built sistership last month, the 20,000-dwt FSL New York (built 2006).
The company has confirmed selling that ship as well, identifying South Korea’s Haein Shipping as its new owner. FSL Trust said it gained about $300,00 from the deal.
It sold the vessels after their time charters with GSB Tankers expired this year, leaving them to trade in an uninspiring spot market.
FSL Trust, which is led by chairman Efstathios Topouzoglou and chief executive Roger Woods, prefers tying its ships to long-term employment.
At the end of June, seven of its then 10 product and chemical tankers operated on such arrangements with James Fisher Everard, a London charterer.
Firm, fixed-rate bareboat charters with James Fisher Everard helped FSL Trust post a profit in the first half of this year, despite slumping tanker markets.
It put an additional, newly acquired tanker —the 9,600-dwt Anuket Amber (built 2008) into an eight-year bareboat charter with the same client last month.
