Imperial Petroleum, the tanker company spun off from LPG player StealthGas, has acquired two more vessels that will boost its fleet to six ships.
The company, which was spun off from the Vafias family-controlled firm late last year, on Tuesday said it spent an aggregate $31m to buy the MR pair. It did not identify the vessels.
The ships are described as having been built at SLS Shipbuilding and Shin Kurushima Dockyard in 2008 and 2011 respectively, which strongly suggests they are the 46,000-dwt Clean Justice (built 2011) and the 50,300-dwt Clean Nirvana (built 2008).
Both vessels had been hitherto controlled by private Vafias company Brave Maritime. The first four vessels Imperial Petroleum started life with in December were previously owned by StealthGas.
Imperial said the deal was approved by its audit committee, which is comprised of independent directors.
Brave seems to have booked a modest profit by transferring the ships to its public affiliate.
The private Vafias company bought the Clean Justice in September for $17.1m, when the ship was trading as Justice Express.
The Clean Nirvana, which formerly traded as Ocean Cosmos, was purchased for $10.7m in late November in a tender sale organised by the joint liquidators of the former fleet of the Xihe Group.
The acquisition is understood to be part of Imperial’s strategy to boost its fleet to about 15 to 20 vessels in the medium to long-term.
To achieve that goal, the company won’t restrict itself to buying vessels from the Vafias family.
Under the current circumstances, however, tapping its sponsor seems natural.
The Ukraine war has bolstered second-hand prices and has limited the supply of the Japanese and South Korean-built vessels in which Imperial Petroleum is interested.
Buying from Brave is also believed to come without the need for deposits and with flexible delivery times for Imperial.
Share price rocketing
According to Imperial’s statement, both acquisitions are to be delivered on a charter-free basis by the end of May.
Imperial also said it expects to finance them with cash on hand and new senior secured bank debt after discussions with an international financial institution are concluded.
The company’s stock has posted a remarkable recovery lately. The Nasdaq-listed outfit saw its share price soar from $0.49 per share on 17 February, a week before Russia invaded Ukraine, to as high as $8.73 in mid-day trading on Tuesday.
By the end of that session, however, the price slid considerably, to close the day at $4.25 per share.
((The article was amended after original publication to correct information about the origin of Imperial Petroleum's first four vessels))
