Koban Shipping of the United Arab Emirates has now bought all three veteran VLCCs offloaded over the last two months by Norway's ADS Crude Carriers.
Brokers list the company, or its affiliate Marshal Shipping, as the purchasers of the 2002-built trio for a combined $76.5m.
The last ship to go was the 299,000-dwt VLCC ADS Page for $25.5m.
This followed up deals by Koban for the sistership ADS Serenade and by Marshal Shipping for ADS Stratus for the same price.
The two companies are described on their websites as ship managers, and they share an address in Dubai.
However, neither responded to TradeWinds' request for comment.
UK shipbroker Clarksons lists Koban as also controlling the 106,000-dwt aframax Hera (built 2005), while Marshal Shipping has another aframax, three boxships, a supramax bulker and a product tanker.
VesselsValue has a value of $124m on 11 ships it lists as beneficially owned by Koban, including two other aframaxes and a suezmax. The valuation platform lists Marshal Shipping as an alternative name for Koban.
Koban's website said it was formed 10 years ago.
Decision to make
Meanwhile, Oslo-listed ADS Crude is due to decide on its future direction next week after selling all three of its ships.
Industry watchers have described the prices achieved for the trio as holding up well against a background of declining asset values for VLCCs in general.
The ships were retrofitted with scrubbers by ADS Crude after they were acquired from John Fredriksen's SFL Corp for a combined $67.5m in 2018, when the company was spun-off from parent Arendal Dampskibsselskap.
Not only has the shipowner now recouped $76.5m from the sales, but it had also made back 68% of its $12m retrofit investment by 30 June.
