Navig8, a major pool operator that also owns tankers in its own right, has agreed to acquire four vessels already under its management.
According to ship management sources and brokers, the deal concerns all four LR1s currently owned by Jacob Shipping, a third-generation group from Germany.
The quartet was built at China’s Dalian Shipbuilding and is made up of the the 76,500-dwt Konstantin Jacob (built 2011), the 75,600-dwt Georg Jacob (built 2011), the 75,600-dwt Cordula Jacob (built 2012) and the 70,000-dwt Till Jacob (built 2012).
Athens-based brokers reported that the vessels are changing hands for $116m.
A senior manager at Hamburg-based Jacob Shipping said he could not provide a comment at this time. When brokers first reported that the four ships were changing hands, in early January for $124m, the manager had said that no transaction had taken place yet.
Managers at Navig8 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The global pool manager and owner is already well familiar with the quartet.
They have been forming part of its LR8 platform since September 2018 and currently represent a third of that pool’s size.
Navig8 is best known as a pool operator, claiming to be the world’s biggest independent commercial manager of its kind.
According to its website, Navig8 has more than 125 vessels under management. This probably includes the 26 ships the company says it owns.
Where does it go from here?
Jacob Shipping’s sale comes at an opportune time, with tanker sales are soaring amid rising freight rates in the aftermath of the Ukraine war.
What is less clear, however, is where the sale leaves the German group as a shipowner.
According to its website, the four ships sold were the only ones it owned.
Jacob Shipping lists another five managed vessels on its website, but these are apparently owned by its partner Nordic Hamburg. Two of these — the 73,700-dwt Nordic Basel (built 2008) and the 73,800-dwt Nordic Geneva (built 2009) — are LR1s chartered out to International Seaways.
Another Nordic Hamburg ship listed on the Jacob Shipping website is the 38,400-dwt MR Nordic Tatiana (built 2007). Brokers have been reporting that ship as sold on various occasions since December, for anything between $15.7m and $16m.
The history of the Jacob Shipping Group goes back to Ernst Jacob Shipping, founded in 1955 in Flensburg, northern Germany. Apart from Ernst Jacob Shipping, the group includes Jacob Tankschiffahrtsgesellschaft, which was set up in 2000.
The Jacob Shipping had twin offices in Flensburg and Hamburg but combined the two into a single, new Hamburg headquarters in 2019.
