Metrostar, a low-profile Greek company led by Theodore Angelopoulos, has agreed to sell its second and last LR2 quickly after parting with the first.
Several brokers in Athens report the 115,600-dwt Prostar (built 2019) as sold to an unidentified Greek peer for $52m.
Managers at Athens-based Metrostar did not respond to a request for comment.
A deal for the Prostar would mirror another transaction reported by TradeWinds on 15 December for sistership Prosky, which has gone to Greece's Neda Maritime at about the same price.
However, ship-management sources in Athens clarify that it is not Neda that bought the Prostar as well, but another Greek company instead.
Metrostar's motive for selling the LR2s is unclear. However, any transaction would make clear sense as an asset play. The company ordered the pair at Daehan Shipbuilding in 2017 at what were rock-bottom prices at the time — a little above $40m apiece.
The company then went ahead to conclude long-term chartering deals for the Prostar and Prosky with oil majors and commodities houses. The $51m or $52m price tag for the Prosky may include earnings to be accrued from the outstanding period of these charters.
Wholesale player
The Prosky and Prostar, as well as another four modern aframaxes and suezmaxes currently with Metrostar, were the fruit of Angelopoulos' efforts to rebuild his fleet after an aggressive sales campaign between 2013 and 2017 in which it divested its considerable tanker holdings.
This was not the first time in which Metrostar sold its entire fleet, only to rebuild it again a few years later.
According to its website, Metrostar has concluded 208 vessel transactions in its 25-year history, as well as 76 newbuilding contracts at shipyards in South Korea and Japan.
Founded in 1996, the company assembled from scratch a group of 18 tankers within four years. By 2003, this entire fleet was sold as the company decided to invest in younger and more high-quality vessels.
Its next round of purchases included VLCCs and bulkers, most of which Angelopoulos flipped quickly again in 2005 and 2006.
In the period between 2010 and 2014, Metrostar went in and out of containerships. Meanwhile, in 2012, it contracted 10 MR tankers at SPP Shipbuilding and eight VLCCs at Hyundai Heavy Industries. All these ships were sold between 2014 and 2016.
Metrostar's executive team is headed by managing director Ioannis Theodorakis.
