A company controlled by Greek shipowner Stanislav Raspopov is the buyer of Scorpio Tankers’ oldest ship.
A special purpose vehicle (SPV) controlled by Raspopov’s Grace Energy Shipping (GES) has acquired the 50,000-dwt STI Amber (built 2012).
The price was put at $33.9m by brokers.
Pareto Securities said this was 7.5% above its valuation of the scrubber-fitted ship.
The vessel was owned on a sale and leaseback basis by China’s Bank of Communications Financial Leasing.
The leasing company bought it from Scorpio in 2017 for $22.5m.
Scorpio then used a purchase option to reacquire the unit for an undisclosed price in September, before selling it on.
The buyer was earlier reported as R Shipping, a vessel manager based in Athens at which Raspopov is a freight trader. It was established in 1998.
Raspopov, 32, was previously a commercial analyst at Navig8 Group and is a former broker.
Filings showed his nationality as Russian before he became a Greek citizen resident in London in 2022.
GES now has a fleet of six MRs.
The 51,000-dwt Grace Lucrum (built 2006) is awaiting delivery to an unknown buyer.
This vessel was bought in 2022 from Falcon Navigation of Greece in May 2022 for $13.7m and flipped in April for $22.8m.
The owner sold the 37,000-dwt MR1 Grace Glaciesruptor (built 2006) to India’s Gatik Ship Management earlier this year.
