Navios Maritime Partners confirmed reports that it has sold two of its three MR1 tankers and went much further by unveiling the divestment of three more vessels, including its only chemical tankers.
TradeWinds already reported last month that the New York-listed Angeliki Frangou-controlled shipping giant was in the process of offloading the 36,300-dwt Perseus N — probably sold to Turkish interests — and 37,800-dwt Star N (both built 2009).
In a bourse filing on Wednesday, the company confirmed that both ships have gone to unrelated third parties. The Star N fetched $18.1m and the Perseus N $18.5m.
The sale of the Perseus N is expected to be completed this month and that of the Star N in the first quarter of 2023.
Navios’ sales campaign of small, older tankers, however, went much further.
It said in the filing that it had raised a total of $28.3m from the sale of the 25,100-dwt Nave Cosmos (built 2010) and Nave Polaris (built 2011). The Nave Cosmos fetched $13.6m and the Nave Polaris $14.7m.
Both deals, concluded with unrelated parties, are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2023.
Navios Partners found willing buyers for its oldest MR2 as well.
On 30 November, it agreed to sell the 48,000-dwt Nave Dorado (built 2005) for $15.6m. It is expected to leave the Navios fleet in the next quarter.
Well-timed moves
None of these vessels were at the core of the Navios fleet and their sales can hardly be described as a surprise.
MR1s, including the Star N and Perseus N, accounted for just three of the 185 vessels the company operates. The Nave Cosmos and Nave Polaris were its only chemical tankers. The Nave Dorado was the oldest of its 18 MR2s.
All the five ships Navios sold were on charters expiring over the next few weeks.
The Perseus N has been operated at arm’s length, chartered out to Italy’s Premuda on a charter earning $12,591 per day and subject to a sale-and-leaseback transaction with Avic International Leasing.
The Nave Dorado was on a charter expiring this month.
The Nave Cosmos and Nave Polaris were earning a floating rate on charters expiring in February.
Navios Partners probably took advantage of soaring sale-and-purchase markets for tankers to offload older ships and raise cash to help fund the acquisition of bigger, more modern ships.
It announced last month that it had spent more than $120m to buy a pair of 115,000-dwt aframax/LR2 newbuildings, after lining up likely five-year employment for them from 2025 that would earn $27,798 per day.
The purchase of these two ships comes on top of the acquisition of four similar aframax/LR2 newbuildings in April.
Furthermore, Navios Partners invested $91.3m in September to buy one newbuilding capesize and a six-year-old kamsarmax.
Navios Partners announced these purchases after confirming the sales of two older panamaxes, the 76,500-dwt Navios Alegria (built 2004) and 74,500-dwt Navios Symmetry (built 2006), from which it raised $22.7m in total.
