First Ship Lease Trust (FSL Trust) has finally agreed to sell a 14-year-old MR product tanker that was reportedly circulated in the secondhand market for more than a month.
The Singapore-listed shipowner said on Tuesday that it signed a memorandum of agreement to sell the 46,000-dwt FSL Osaka (built 2007).
The Singapore-flag ship, constructed by Shin Kurushima Dockyard, has been trading in a Hafnia tanker pool.
“The disposal is made in the ordinary course of business,” non-executive chairman Efstathios Topouzoglou said in an exchange filing.
“Details of the net proceeds of the disposal and their utilisation will be announced upon completion of the disposal."
In January, brokers reported that the ship was being sold to Buana Lintas Lautan for slightly more than $11m, but FSL Trust told TradeWinds the sale did not occur.
According to VesselsValue, the ship was worth about $11.5m as of Monday.
FSL Trust recently completed the sale of the 114,000-dwt FSL Fos and FSL Suez (both built 2021) to Libya's General National Maritime Transport Co for $52.5m each.
Fourth-quarter loss
The shipowner said it would book a net gain of $500,000, after taking into consideration the combined newbuilding contract price of $97.6m and other costs associated with their construction and broker fees.
The Singapore Exchange had asked FSL Trust how the sales fitted in with its stated intention of renewing the fleet.
FSL said it was offloading the vessels at “extraordinarily high” prices in a weak market.
VesselsValue estimated the FSL Suez and FSL Fos were together worth just $42.5m at the time of sale.
FSL Trust recorded a fourth-quarter loss of $2.2m due to asset disposals and weak tanker markets.
It completed the sales of three containerships and three tankers last year as part of its plan to get rid of older tonnage.
In addition to the reduced fleet, the results were affected by low tanker earnings amid severe oversupply.
The shipowner was also hit by non-cash vessel impairment charges of $3.1m on the FSL Osaka and the 115,900-dwt FSL Hong Kong (built 2007) for the quarter.
Following the sale of the FSL Osaka, the shipowner is expected to have an 11-ship fleet — one aframax, one MR and nine smaller tankers.
