Greece’s Nicholas Moundreas Group has realised an impressive profit margin on a Japanese-built aframax it acquired just 20 months ago, when tanker markets started going into a tailspin.
Ship management sources in Athens say Moundreas-family controlled NGM Energy has achieved a $35m price tag for the 105,300-dwt Baroness (built 2011).
The buyers of the vessel have not been disclosed yet.
This is an asset play generating a profit of up to $13m for the seasoned Greek owner.
NGM Energy had purchased the ship in December 2020 from Greek peer Pleiades Shipping Agents. It was trading as Pamisos then and changed hands for anything between $22m and $24m, according to brokers at the time.
It looks like Moundreas drove a hard bargain to squeeze as much value as possible out of the Sumitomo Heavy Industries-built ship.
Some brokers had reported the Baroness sold already in June at a slightly lower price of between $33m and $33.5m.
Moundreas, however, probably decided to hold on to the ship for a bit longer, as the tanker market continued improving. This improvement sparked a virtual buying frenzy for smaller tankers, from handysizes to MRs to aframaxes.
Tsakos seeing an opening
In one such deal for an LR reported recently by US-based brokers, New York-listed Tsakos Energy Navigation (TEN) is said to have sold the 68,400-dwt Inca (built 2003) for between $12.5m and $13m.
TEN owns just 51% of the Inca, with the remaining 49% held by Polaris Oil Shipping Inc — an affiliate of Flopec Petrolera Ecuatoriana (Flopec).
Flopec is one of TEN’s major charterers, generating nearly 8% of the charter revenue the company generated last year.
Tanker buying appetite has recently expanded to suezmaxes, occasionally even to VLCCs, whose earnings levels have considerably lagged those of smaller oil carriers.
Another tanker previously in the NGM fleet found a new owner as well — the 150,000-dwt A Symphony (built 2001) — which Moundreas had lined up for sale last year before the ship was involved in an accident.
Brokers said the vessel has passed under the control of Chinese interests now for about $13m — possibly at an auction.
The Symphony A, which was purchased by Moundreas in 2019 for close to $12m, is now trading as Cathay Phoenix with Hong Kong-based Sino Susceed Shipping.
Moundreas has meanwhile expanded in bulkers.
NGM emerged in May as new manager of the 170,100-dwt capesize Formosabulk Clement (renamed Goody, built 2001) — a vessel reported sold by brokers by Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Marine Corporation (FPMC) for $13.8m.
