A former Xihe Holdings VLCC auctioned at the beginning of January has emerged under new ownership that suggests a strong link to Cypriot owner Andreas Hadjiyiannis’ Hellenic Tankers.
With the destiny of the 318,600-dwt crude carrier Wu Yi San (built 2012) pointing firmly in his direction, Hadjiyiannis now appears to have bought two VLCCs at auction in Singapore within a week.
IHS Markit data shows that the Wu Yi San was sold to Kronos Enterprises, a single-ship entity registered in Liberia, when it went under the hammer on 4 January for $38.5m.
A few days earlier, Navygold Maritime, a Liberia-registered single-ship entity affiliated with Hellenic Tankers, had submitted a winning bid of $41.5m for the Hermes Marine Management-controlled 320,300-dwt Chloe V (built 2011).
With the ships now delivered to their new owning entities, striking similarities have emerged in their registration details that observers said put it beyond reasonable doubt that Hadjiyiannis is behind both deals.
The Chloe V has been renamed Princess Natalie, while the Wu Yi San has become Princess Vanya.
Both have been reflagged in Cyprus and put in the hands of Singapore-based Executive Ship Management.
After being handed over by the Sheriff of Singapore’s office, the ships moved from their arrest locations to the Eastern Anchorage, where on Friday they were moored in close proximity to each other.
Brokers in Singapore have also linked the Wu Yi San to Hellenic Tankers.
TradeWinds understands that both tankers are being prepared for a voyage to China, where they will undergo dry-docking.
Hadjiyiannis, who did not respond to requests for comment, is a self-made shipowner who controls a mixed fleet of about 40 bulkers, container ships and tankers under his two companies Hellenic Tankers and Cyprus Sea Lines.
Well known for being a keen buyer of distressed assets, he concluded some exceptional sale-and-purchase and chartering deals in the container ship market last year, while Cyprus Sea Lines was widely reported to have made at least two highly lucrative asset plays with boxships it had previously acquired in the distressed German market between 2014 and 2017.
Hadjiyiannis then started ploughing some of the proceeds back into the tanker market, beginning with the $41.5m acquisition of Xihe’s 318,400-dwt crude carrier Chang Bai San (built 2012) las August, which is now trading as VLCC Stephanie and is managed by Executive Ship Management.
