Moundreas family-controlled NGM Energy concluded a very lucrative sale-and-purchase deal by selling a three-year-old suezmax to Indonesia’s Pertamina International Shipping.
Market sources say the shipping unit of the Jakarta-based oil major spent $86m to acquire NGM’s modern, scrubber-fitted 156,600-dwt Bella Ciao (built 2020).
A manager with Pertamina declined to discuss the price but confirmed that a deal for the Chinese-built vessel was concluded at the end of December.
This is a huge asset play for NGM — a seasoned player with decades of experience in shipping markets.
The Piraeus-based company placed an order for the ship with New Times Shipbuilding in late November 2018. While the precise pricing details remain undisclosed, data from Clarksons’ time series indicates that, on average, the cost of constructing a new suezmax tanker was around $60m during that period.
Some brokers reported that the Pertamina deal is structured as a short-term bareboat charter, at the end of which the Indonesian company is obliged to purchase the vessel.
TradeWinds understands, however, that this is just to accommodate the vessel’s current charter arrangements and is ultimately immaterial for its price.
The deal fits bolt-on to Pertamina International’s expansion strategy, as laid out by the company’s chief executive Yoki Firnandi in an interview with TradeWinds in September.
Spun off from the oil major as an independent unit three years ago, Pertamina International sets out to take its place among the world’s commercial tanker giants with a $3bn fleet renewal and diversification plan.
Firnandi told TradeWinds that he expected the cash to be spent over the next five years on tankers, LPG carriers and LNG carriers.
The company is already taking big, first steps in this direction.
As TradeWinds reported, the company splashed out $240m to acquire two 91,000-cbm VLGC newbuilding resales from Avance Gas.
Expansion plans would culminate with an IPO on the Jakarta bourse in 2025 or 2026, subject to shareholder approval.
The Bella Ciao deal serves as additional evidence that tanker asset values, especially for modern units, continue to hover at stratospheric levels despite a slowdown from the frenetic deal volumes observed a few months ago.
All-Greek suezmax deal
In another suezmax deal reported widely by brokers just before Christmas, Eurotankers is said to have snapped up the somewhat older, scrubber-fitted 158,600-dwt Serenea (built 2009) for $45m or $46m.
The purported sellers are Greek peers Chandris (Hellas), which have held the vessel since its delivery as a newbuilding from Samsung Heavy Industries.
The Serenea and its sister ship Sestrea are the only suezmaxes in Chandris’ fleet of 13 crude and product tankers.
Managers at neither Eurotankers nor Chandris responded to a request for comment.
