Connecticut-based shipping pool operator Penfield Marine has sold the operation to Maersk Tankers, several market sources said.
A deal, if confirmed, would bring the fast-growing US commercial operator into one of the largest tanker fleets in the world.
Messages to Penfield chief executive Tim Brennan were not immediately returned on Thursday.
However, sources in the ship finance and tanker markets confirmed they have been aware for some time that Penfield has been seeking a buyer for the privately owned operation.
Penfield is said to have engaged an investment banker at one point in the process.
The Fairfield, Connecticut-based outfit is led by former Heidmar executives Brennan and Eric Haughn, dating back to the days when the pools were run by founder Per Heidenreich. Years later, Heidenreich joined the Penfield board as chairman and was also a minority investor.
When TradeWinds last checked in with Penfield in January 2022, the operation had grown to 75 tankers, across the panamax, aframax and suezmax sectors. The largest complement was in panamaxes with 37.
The fleet has since grown to 81 tankers across the three pools, according to Penfield’s website.
Maersk Tankers, controlled by AP Moller Holding, operates product tanker pools in segments ranging from 10,000 dwt to 120,000 dwt, with fleets in small and large intermediates, handysize, MR and LR2 aframax sizes.
Brennan said in January 2022 that Penfield was pleased to have experienced most of its growth from the ranks of existing partners.
“The fact that the majority of our growth came from existing partners shows they’re committed to what we are doing,” Brennan said.
“When Eric and I started Penfield [in 2012] we said we wanted to work with people we liked and trusted. We’ve been fortunate enough to continue that.”
Brennan ran Heidmar for a decade before resigning in 2012 amid what were said to be differences over direction with the company’s 49% shareholder, Greek shipowner George Economou.
Haughn worked at Heidmar for 13 years before leaving in 2004 for a job at Glencore’s ST Shipping.
A price that Maersk Tankers would pay in the deal was not immediately available.
One finance source said that valuing a pools operation is notoriously difficult and there can be wildly different notions of proper value.
Heidenreich is widely regarded as having hit the jackpot when he sold his business to financial giant Morgan Stanley in 2006 for a sum rumoured to be more than $200m.
Economou tried to buy the business then but had to wait until 2008 to acquire his 49% chunk.
