Naftomar, an Athens-based LPG specialist with roots in Lebanon, has acquired its first product tankers in three decades.
Attracted by rising freight rates in the sector, the company has decided to dip its toe in tanker waters with the purchase of an MR1 pair.
Ship-management sources are identifying the ships as the 37,800-dwt Single and Silent (both built 2007).
Both vessels used to be with Turkey’s Genel Denizcilik but are believed to have subsequently passed under the control of lenders. They are currently in the managed fleet of Sokana, a joint venture between Lars Ebbesen and Greece’s Interunity Group.
According to the sources, each of the Hyundai Mipo-built vessels changed hands for about $13.5m.
The price is far below the levels commonly available and that ship valuation tools estimate they are worth. Signal Ocean, the data provider offering a valuation closest to their actual sale level, estimates their worth at $15.1m each.
This gap is probably due to the fact that the Single and Silent have to undergo special and other surveys. According to the sources, Naftomar will probably have to spend as much as $3m on that purpose for each of the two ships.
Buoyant freight rates, underpinned by ultra-tight diesel markets amid a pending Western embargo on Russian crude and oil products, offer attractive prospects for tanker owners.
This has unleashed a buying binge and soaring prices for secondhand tonnage.
According to market analysts, MR1s such as the Single and Silent had been relatively lagging in the tanker sale-and-purchase feast — but they are catching up now.
“The usually less popular size seems to have attracted loads of interest from prospective investors in the past weeks,” wrote Eva Tzima, head analyst at Athens-based Seaborne Shipbrokers, in a note.
“It appears that all recently circulated MR1 candidates have been sold,” she added.
Tzima attributes this development to two factors.
First, MR prices seem “more enticing” compared to MR2s.
Second and maybe more important, the MR1 trading fleet offers a wider selection of coveted ice-class tonnage than MR2s. This particularly applies to vessels around 15 years or older, on which buyers have been focusing.
New deals for MR1s may be in the pipeline.
According to the sources, another sistership pair to the vessels Naftomar bought, also operated by Sokana and Interunity, the 37,900-dwt tankers Style (built 2008) and Sky (built 2007), are sale candidates as well.
Some brokers have reported the Style and Sky as already sold en bloc for $33m. TradeWinds, however, understands that this information is not correct and that the two vessels are still in the market.
Navios in sales mode?
New York-listed shipping behemoth Navios Maritime Partners is believed to be close to offloading at least one such ship.
Brokers based in Athens and the US report that its 36,300-dwt Perseus N (built 2009) was sold to Turkish interests for close to $18m.
Additional market sources in Athens, however, said that no such deal has materialised but that another may shortly, as several other potential buyers are waiting in the wings.
Greek brokers report another Navios MR1 as sold, the 37,800-dwt Star N (built 2009), which is said to have gone to undisclosed interests at an undisclosed price.
Managers at Navios did not respond to a request for comment. Both vessels, however, certainly look like sale candidates.
MR1s are hardly at the core of Navios’ fleet. They account for just three out of the 185 vessels the Angeliki Frangou company operates.
The Star N and Perseus N are, furthermore, on charters expiring over the next few weeks.
According to the Navios website, the Perseus N is on a charter earning $12,591 per day and the Star N is on a floating charter rate in Scorpio’s handymax tanker pool.
Navios operates the Perseus N at arm’s length. The Hyundai Mipo Dockyard-built ship is chartered in by Italy’s Premuda and is subject to a sale-and-leaseback transaction with AVIC International Leasing.
The Perseus N and Star N are part of a fleet of five product tankers that a publicly traded Navios entity took over in January 2020 from the liquidation of Navios Europe, a privately held Frangou entity.
