Westport Tankers, a company set up in early 2021, invested in tankers at a time when few people were willing to buy them.
The Piraeus-based outfit spent a little more than $90m in total to acquire five oil carriers, according to TradeWinds calculations based on broker reports and estimates.
It concluded four of these deals before February 2022, when the outbreak of the Ukraine war started catapulting tanker values to stratospheric heights.
Throughout 2022, Westport has been enjoying the fruits of its timely acquisitions, turning a remarkable profit.
A series of asset plays boosted its coffers by at least about $140m, on the basis of four vessels it is known or believed to have sold.
In the latest deal reported by several Greek brokers in early December, Westport divested the 146,400-dwt Mike R (ex-Ridgebury Mary Selena, built 2006) for $45m. It had acquired the ice-class and scrubber-fitted suezmax in August, for $31m from Ridgebury Tankers.
The price has some brokers looking on in disbelief.
“[This] is around the same levels a six-year-younger ice class non-scrubber unit sold [for] back in October,” brokers at Athens’ WeberSeas wrote on 9 December.
Merry-go round of ships
Westport achieved equally juicy profit margins with three other deals it is believed to have concluded earlier this year, all of them reported by TradeWinds.
Brokers said in November that the 105,800-dwt aframax Sifis (built 2007) was sold for about $32m, after its acquisition from Bergshav in February for $16.5m.
The 105,200-dwt LR2 Argo (built 2009) reportedly fetched about $34m in August. Westport bought it in October 2021 from Greek peer Atlas Maritime at an undisclosed price, which was probably below $20m — according to levels prevalent at the time.
In July, Westport turned a profit of about $10m from the sale of the 115,600-dwt Nicholas (renamed Nichole, built 2007), an aframax it had bought five months earlier from Zodiac Maritime.
It remains unclear if, and on what terms, the owner repeated the trick with the first vessel it bought, the 106,100-dwt LR2 Makronissos (renamed Nikki, built 2002).
The Makronissos, one in a string of vessels offloaded by Greece’s Eletson Corp to meet payment obligations to bondholders and leasing partners, passed under Westport management in early 2021 for about $10m.
According to usually reliable reference sources, the ship passed within a few months under the management of Jalship Management Pvt, a one-ship company based in India that continues to trade the vessel as Nikitis.
Westport Tankers did not respond to a request for comment on the reported sale of the Mike R. Its website continues to feature the Argo, Nicholas and Sifis as part of its managed fleet.
The people behind
Westport Tankers is led by chief executive George Stamoulas, who is also a partner at Westport Maritime LLC — a Connecticut outfit describing itself on its website as a provider of dry bulk commercial management services.
Another Greek player involved with Westport Tankers is Michael Tsangaris, managing director of Tsangaris Bros, who has also been serving in the same capacity at Westport Tankers, which is located in the same Piraeus building as Tsangaris Bros.
According to shipbroking circles in Athens, a third local player is involved in Westport Tankers — Stefanos Gaviotis, chief executive of Greek bulker player Ecocarriers Maritime.
Gaviotis did not respond to a request for comment.
