Gatik Ship Management has bolstered its reputation as the world’s biggest tanker buyer since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as brokers link it to yet more purchases that boost its fleet size to new heights.
The Mumbai-based outfit is reportedly behind deals for the 105,500-dwt aframax Beks Indiana (built 2007) and 73,700-dwt LR1 La Boheme (built 2007).
No price has been disclosed for the two ships and their current owners — Beks Ship Management and Product Shipping & Trading — were not immediately available for comment.
A price benchmark is provided by a sistership of the La Boheme — the 73,700-dwt Lorelei (built 2007) — which is said to have fetched $33.5m in a separate deal with undisclosed buyers.
Gatik is known to be swooping on LR1 tankers in that age group.
As TradeWinds reported earlier this week, S&P Global’s International Ships Register shows Gatik as the buyer of the 73,900-dwt Megali (renamed Lydia, built 2007).
That deal represented a huge asset play for the vessel’s previous owner — Greece’s Astra Shipmanagement — which sold the Japanese-built vessel to clients of Gatik for $30m. Astra had purchased it in February last year — just before the war in Ukraine broke out — for a mere $11.7m.
Buying appetite from Asian players has helped owners such as Astra make a killing from the sale of older tankers amid soaring prices.
Beks owner Ali Bekmezci bought the Beks Indiana in the summer of 2021 to break into the tanker sector, in a countercyclical bet that has paid off handsomely. The vessel cost about $17m at the time, but Signal Ocean estimates it to be worth $37.9m now.
Meanwhile, serial asset player Avin International has secured yet another lucrative deal.
According to brokers in Greece and the US, undisclosed interests are spending $35m on its 166,700-dwt suezmax Kriti Diamond (built 2004). Avin had bought the ship in 2018 for between $15.5m and $17.2m, according to broker information at the time.
If reports are confirmed that Gatik bought the Beks Indiana, the La Boheme and the 50,000-dwt tanker UOG Andros (built 2009), its managed fleet would reach almost 50 ships.
A tanker empire from scratch
Gatik, which S&P lists as a subsidiary of India-based Buena Vista Shipping and an affiliate of United Arab Emirates-based Gardsea Shipping, has been the biggest buyer of such vessels by far.
Set up in March last year, a month after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, it has come to be involved in managing 44 crude and product tankers, according to S&P.
VesselsValue estimates its fleet to be worth $1.38bn — up from $1.21bn just a few weeks ago.
Based in a country that has imposed no sanctions on Russia and in which there is no media backlash for Russian trades, Gatik-managed ships flying the flags of St Kitts and Nevis or Gabon have not been shy about lifting Russian crude and oil products.
According to data compiled by TradeWinds from open sources such as the Russian Tanker Tracker and Signal Ocean, about 10 Gatik ships embarked laden from Russian ports in the first five weeks of this year.
The buying appetite of Gatik’s clients has even extended to bulkers. In December 2022, the company emerged as the new manager of the 75,600-dwt Seawind (built 2006) — a panamax sold by Greece’s Thenamaris a few weeks before to undisclosed buyers for $15.2m.
This was Thenamaris’ third-oldest bulker, its last panamax and the first bulker it sold in almost two years.
