New York-listed diversified tanker owner International Seaways is on track to realise post-merger financial synergies both on the cost and revenue sides following the completion of its July takeover of Diamond S Shipping.

That assessment comes from B Riley FBR analyst Liam Burke after completing a non-deal roadshow with the New York company, and just after Seaways confirmed to TradeWinds that it will be cutting some positions among legacy Diamond S staffers.

"Although post-integration cost synergies will not be fully realized until 2022, the company is seeing progress toward meeting its $23m cost reduction objective on schedule," Burke wrote in a client note on Thursday.

"With the shift of both its suezmax and medium range (MR) vessels into pools, both vessel classes are earning higher rates and contributing to the company’s objective of $9M in annual revenue synergies."

TradeWinds reported on Wednesday that Seaways had confirmed market rumours of additional staff cuts among holdover Diamond S employees, beyond those among senior management positions that were announced at the time of the takeover.

"We committed to keeping all staff below the C-Suite [level] through the end of 2021, and we have been able to advise the team that we have asked about 60% of the Diamond S team below the C-Suite to stay on board," Zabrocky said.

The Seaways boss declined to quantify the number of former Diamond S staffers who are in the sub-C-Suite category.

Seaways in July completed the $2.2bn all-stock acquisition of Connecticut-based Diamond S, which was founded by shipping veteran Craig H Stevenson Jr and formerly chaired by legendary investor Wilbur Ross.

At the time of the deal, Diamond S already had moved much of its MR fleet into Norden's Norient Product Pool. And as TradeWinds has reported, Seaways has since elected to move 11 of the former Diamond suezmaxes into a pool run by Connecticut's Penfield Marine.

The combined outsourcing put the writing on the wall for further staff reductions.

Burke came away with a positive overall impression from the virtual roadshow, maintaining a $35 price target and a buy rating on Seaways.

"[Seaways] shares have recovered steadily from 2021 lows and with assets in both the crude and product tanker classes, management is making the case that the company will see the benefit of the steady contribution of product tanker rates with the upside operating leverage on the rebound in crude tanker rates," Burke wrote.