Norwegian financial shipowner Harald Moraeus-Hanssen has revealed a series of fresh and previously undisclosed acquisitions, including tanker newbuildings.
The former Fearnley Securities boss is in the midst of rebalancing the portfolio of his Uthalden Maritime from container shipping to offshore.
The deals include two previously unreported stainless-steel chemical carriers at Japan’s Fukuoka Shipbuilding plus further secondhand purchases in offshore support.
Moraeus-Hanssen ordered the two 19,900-dwt chemical carriers last summer for delivery in 2024 and 2025. He did not comment on the pricing.
VesselsValue gives a total price of about $97m for two such ships on order for unidentified owners at the Japanese specialist yard.
Financing is not in place for the vessels yet, and Moraeus-Hanssen did not rule out Japanese leasing but views Chinese lease finance as too expensive.
Moraeus-Hanssen’s Uthalden Maritime already has a 50% share in two older ships of the same general specification, alongside Bergen-based co-owner Ludwig Mowinckels Rederi.
Commercial arrangements for the newbuilding pair will wait until time for delivery, but he expressed satisfaction with the returns the two older ships are getting in the Hansa Tankers Pool.
Meanwhile, Moraeus-Hanssen also revealed that he with fellow Norwegian investors are behind the recently announced purchase of a large platform supply vessel from the fleet of Solstad Offshore, the 4,300-dwt Normand Flipper (built 2003).
He is not giving away the price, but shipowning data provider VesselsValue reckons the vessel is worth some $7.88m.
TradeWinds reported last week on Solstad’s sale of the ship to an unknown buyer in its year-long ongoing sell-down.
Some reference sources now list it under the name HM Flipper, but the more usual prefix for Moraeus-Hanssen’s ships is MH.
The Normand Flipper will join in Moraeus-Hanssen’s fleet the 4,600-dwt large PSV Skandi Aukra (built 2012), a DOF vessel which he quietly acquired last summer.
The Uthalden Maritime fleet comprises container ships, bulkers, tankers and a car carrier, on top of more recent offshore additions.
After over a year of profit-taking on well-timed container ship investments, he has been turning his attention to offshore services, because of his conviction that the exploration and production sector has been underinvested since the oil price crash of 2014, and its need for renewal gives a “positive background for investments”.
“Hydrocarbons are going to be with us for a good while yet,” he told TradeWinds in a recent conversation.
“In the long term, you can ask how much demand there will be for transporting coal and crude oil.
“But the green shift is not going to change the face of shipping over the next 10 years.”
Together with partners he also picked up two much larger ultra-deepwater offshore assets over the course of the year, the 25,500-dwt semi-submersible drilling rig SSV Catarina (built 2010) and a famously unfinished Samsung Heavy Industries project, the 62,000-dwt drillship West Dorado (to be renamed Dorado, to be delivered 2023).
Oslo business daily Finansavisen reported that Moraeus-Hanssen and frequent fellow investor Oystein Stray Spetalen went 60:40 in putting down $55m on the former, while Gunnar Hvammen and Petter Stordalen partnered him in buying the West Dorado for something over $200m — still only a fraction of the newbuilding’s original delivered cost, estimated at more than $700m.
