Martinos family companies Minerva Marine and Eastern Mediterranean (Eastmed), two of the world’s biggest aframax owners, are believed to be offloading their oldest vessels in the segment.
The news comes amid a falling number of secondhand tanker deals that sets some brokers thinking whether the sale-and-purchase market is running out of steam in the sector.
Andreas Martinos-controlled Minerva has concluded an en bloc sale of two aframaxes to unidentified buyers in the Middle East, according to several brokers in Athens and the US.
The reports diverge as to which vessels were actually sold. Some say it is the 106,000-dwt Minerva Astra (built 2001) for $11.7m and the 105,900-dwt Minerva Zenia (built 2002) for $12.3m.
Others brokers, however, believe that the Minerva Astra is still circulating for sale and that it is the 104,600-dwt Minerva Alexandra (built 2000) that has been sold instead alongside the Minerva Zenia, again for $24m in total.
Managers at Minerva Marine declined to comment, citing confidentiality obligations and standard policy not to discuss commercial matters.
Regardless of which aframaxes the company actually sold, the rumoured deal fits a pattern of fleet renewal.
The Minerva Astra, Alexandra and Zenia are the oldest units in Minerva’s fleet of 37 aframaxes. That fleet includes two newbuildings the company is set to take delivery of next year from Daehan Shipbuilding, as well as the 112,800-dwt Minerva Kallisto (built 2019), which the company acquired earlier this year as a newbuilding resale from Unisea Shipping under the name Aquabliss.
Eastmed, a company controlled by Martinos sibling Thanassis, appears to be following the same strategy. It is reported to have sold its oldest aframax, the 105,500-dwt Seadance (built 1999), for about $9.5m, again to Middle Easterners. At the same time, Piraeus-based Eastmed is said to be circulating the sistership Ioannis for sale.
Eastmed managers did not respond to a request for comment. A sale of the two ships would be in line with general company policy to offload older tankers amid a burgeoning market for crude carriers.
Thanassis Martinos has raised nearly $100m earlier this year from the sale of three VLCCs built between 2000 and 2002.
The pace of tanker dealmaking, however, has decelerated significantly last week.
“On the tanker side, total activity noted seems to be on a softening path as of the past few weeks, given the relatively mediocre number of vessels changing hands,” Allied Research said in a note on 23 June. “Whether this is circumstantial or a new trend remains to be seen,” the Athens-based analysts added.
Other market observers, however, remain bullish. The small number of concluded deals last week belies a busy activity beneath the surface, which will soon translate into ships actually changing hands, analysts at Clarksons argued.
“Interest in the tanker sale and purchase market remains healthy with continued high levels of enquiry, particularly from the Far East,” the London-based brokerage said in a report on 19 June.
