Shipping platform Pillarstone Italy plans to invest up to $250m on renewing its product tanker fleet.

The Milan and Genoa-based company plans to acquire up to seven modern eco-tankers over the next two years, according to a statement.

The move will reposition the fleet on modern MR tankers and is expected to make the company more appealing to potential investors.

The company is seeking to part-finance the plan through the disposal of “non-strategic” vessels in the 31-strong Pillarstone fleet of tankers and bulkers.

Such sales include the 50,500-dwt MR tanker PS Milano (built 2008) which is being sold to Turkish buyers for about $11.5m, according to several broker reports.

That would be the third in a series of sisterships to be sold.

Earlier sales reportedly included the 50,500-dwt PS Houston (built 2008) to Greece’s Dexter Navigation and 50,500-dwt PS London (built 2008) to Lavinia Corp.

“We have built together with our stakeholders a very complex industrial plan,” said Marco Fiori, chief executive of Premuda and chairman of Finav Holding, which are Pillarstone shipping platforms.

“The ships we are selling represent a fundamental source of self-financing to launch a program of new investments across the platform for a value that exceeds $250m."

Pillarstone took over the fleet of Genoa-based shipping company Premuda fleet in 2017.

Two years later it launched the Finav shipping fund which proceeded to take over vessels from an array of financially troubled Italian shipping companies.

Today, the Premuda-Finav platform comprises seven bulkers and 24 tankers.

New industrial plan

But under the new industrial plan, Pillarstone will ‘reposition’ the fleet to make it more attractive to the capital markets and strategic investors.

It intends to purchase up to seven eco and super-eco tankers within two years, with a preference on secondhand vessels built after 2016, Fiori said.

That process of renewal appears to be taking place with Pillarstone management claiming to have lifted subjects to buy an unnamed Vietnamese-built, 2019-built scrubber-fitted tanker.

The group is also in the process of taking over two other unnamed tankers on long-term leases with purchase options.

Besides raising finance from vessel sales, Pillarstone is confident it will soon obtain $50m in traditional bank loans.

The company also expects to obtain $35m from a three vessels sale and leaseback deal to be concluded in the coming months.

The Pillarstone shipping platforms expect to report revenues of €104.2m ($117m) and Ebidta of €41.2m for 2021.