With VLCC spot fixtures reported at around $100,000 per day, it is not unusual to see vessels close to the 20-year age mark changing hands at prices considered outlandish just a few months ago.
Greek shipowners with the guts, good sense or just sheer luck to have bought such tankers during the lean years before the war in Ukraine continue making a killing selling them in the secondhand market.
The Embiricos family is tied to yet another, highly lucrative, sale.
Brokers based in the US and the UK said its 318,700-dwt Kassos I (built 2007) — a scrubber-fitted vessel built at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries — fetched at least $60m.
That compares to the paltry — by current standards — amount of $34.6m that Embiricos companies Aeolos Management and Andros Maritime Agencies spent to acquire the vessel in mid-2018 from compatriot Enesel.
Managers at Aeolos and Andros did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, Embiricos managers are known for their asset-play skills.
Before the current surge in the tanker market, they concluded similarly successful transactions with container ships when that market boomed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Another Greek VLCC asset play is brewing with the 310,000-dwt Limnia (built 2009).
Until the summer of 2021, this ship used to trade as Tsuruga in the fleet of NYK Line.
Its then Japanese owners sold the vessel at the time to unidentified Greek buyers for between $39m and $40m.
Not all VLCCs are the same
US-based brokers are now reporting that ship as committed, on subjects, to unidentified buyers for $61m.
The Limnia is younger than the Kassos I and was built at Imabari Shipbuilding in Japan.
However, by contrast to the Kassos I, the Limnia is not equipped with a scrubber.
Furthermore, the Limnia is due to pass special survey nearly three years sooner than the Kassos I — in the autumn of 2024.
There is little clarity about which owner is actually supposed to be in the process of selling the Limnia.
Online shipping data platforms list Kyklades Maritime as its owner, but the company does not feature the ship on its website.
According to broker sources, Kyklades is just the commercial operator of the vessel on behalf of different Greek owners, possibly the Angelakos family.
Meanwhile, Thenamaris is not selling tankers just for asset-play purposes. But it is also making extensive use of the opportunity to offload the oldest vessels in its fleet at historically high prices.
The Greek company has sold up to 18 tankers on the secondhand market over the past 12 months.
US-based brokers now report the company as being in the process to sell another one — the 318,700-dwt Athina II (built 2005) — again to undisclosed buyers, for $56m.
The scrubber-fitted Athina II is the oldest VLCC in Thenamaris’ tanker fleet.
Confirmation of its sale would bring the company’s tanker sale proceeds to about $500m since March 2022.
The company declined to comment, in line with its policy to not discuss commercial matters.
Greeks are not the only shipowners to have sold VLCCs recently.
Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines is reportedly gaining $50m from the sale of the 311,400-dwt Yufusan (built 2005) to other Asian interests.
The Yufusan is a Japanese-built ship but it is not equipped with a scrubber.
