Marla Tankers, an asset-play vehicle set up by Greek owner Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis, seems to have served its purpose with the highly lucrative sale of its last two vessels.
Several market sources in Athens and London say the 115,800-dwt coated aframax sister ships Fos Picasso and Fos Da Vinci (both built 2009) are being sold in an en-bloc deal.
Some brokers say they fetched a combined a price of about $84m, with others suggesting a more general figure in the “low-$80m range”.
Both prices would represent a huge profit margin for Marla Tankers, which acquired the ships back in 2018 from Greek peer Chandris (Hellas) for $23.7m apiece, or $47.4m combined.
The Fos Picasso and the Fos Da Vinci are LR2s but they had been carrying crude oil even before Marla Tankers bought them from Chandris six years ago, under the names of Amorea and Aegea, respectively.
The two ships have remained in crude petroleum transport since, with vessel trackers and Equasis showing them moving in the northern hemisphere, mainly between northern Europe, the Mediterranean and South East Asia.
Managers at Marla Tankers did not respond to a request for comment about the reported sale.
However, even market sources unaware of the ships’ sale told TradeWinds they knew the Fos Picasso and the Fos Da Vinci had been circulating on the market.
Their divestment would leave Marla Tankers without any vessels.
The company used to manage another pair of LR2s, which was sold in two separate asset plays at the end of 2022.
As TradeWinds reported, US-listed Greek peer Performance Shipping picked up Marla’s 105,500-dwt Fos Hamilton (renamed P Long Beach) for $43.75m.
A few weeks later, Turkish company Ditas Denizcilik — a part of the Koc business conglomerate — spent about $50m on the 105,200-dwt Fos Athens (renamed T Kurucesme, built 2015).
Marla Tankers had acquired the Fos Hamilton and Fos Athens in 2018 for about $30m each from Marinsa Denizcilik, another Turkish company.
That was also the year in which Latsis set up Marla Tankers as a joint venture separate from the traditional family company Latsco, with the express purpose of investing in the secondhand market.
The Greek owner had declined to reveal any details about this new venture at the time, other than to say that it was similar in spirit to Ivy Shipping — a dry-bulk asset play vehicle that Latsis set up in 2016.
