Frederik Rye-Florentz's RFOcean is in the process of acquiring up to two chemical and product tankers from Geneva's ABC Maritime.
The move will see the London-based Norwegian shipowner grow its fleet and enter a new size category in the sector.
RFOcean confirmed it had bought the 19,100-dwt Adfines Sun (built 2011) through a Fleetscape Capital lease finance vehicle. It has renamed the ship RF Stella.
The ice-class 1A ship will sail under a 12-month charter to Canada's Suncor in the Canada-US business.
"It fits well into the trade," Rye-Florentz said. "We hope to have her there for many years."
He confirmed he is in negotiations to buy the sistership Adfines Sky from ABC Maritime.
RFOcean is understood to be scouting time-charter employment for the second ship, which has been trading dirty products but is of the same specification as the Adfines Sun.
Broking reports in June listed the ships as sold to an unnamed party for around $10m each, and Rye-Florentz told TradeWinds that the reported price is reasonably accurate.
When asked about a reported sale of both vessels, an ABC Maritime official denied that a deal had been done.
"There's a lot of false information in different publications," said ABC Maritime chief operations officer Stuart Bartle, who added that he was not at liberty to discuss whether the ships are for sale.
The sale-and-leaseback acquisition, through alternative finance house Fleetscape Capital, sees Rye-Florentz move his fleet of small tankers up a notch, and he told TradeWinds that he is looking at further acquisitions of both small chemical tankers and product tankers up to MR1.
"But that is a crowded space, and it is not going to be our core," he said.
'Stable trades'
He added that he is less interested in being an asset player than in being in "stable trades" based on his company's operational skills in chemical tankers.
Rye-Florentz was partner with Christoph Toepfer in London-based shipping investment company Borealis Maritime, and remained with the company from 2010 to 2017 before branching out on his own.
Since that time, besides buying ships, Rye-Florentz has started his own Turkish-based shipmanager — Miklagard-S Ship Management SA — and also found time to pick up an MBA from Oxford's Said Business School.
His previous RFOcean acquisitions were powered by Clarksons Platou Project Finance Funding or by 100% equity finance.
Under management
The Miklagard-S website does not mention the new ships but lists six tankers under its management, all but one of less than 10,000 dwt.
Two belong to vehicles affiliated with Rotterdam-based North Sea Tankers.
The other four are understood to be directly controlled by RFOcean, the largest being the 13,300-dwt RF Alice (built 2008). The company bought the ship from Nilgiri Tankers in December last year, when it was named the Oceanic Crimson.
RFOcean has carried over a number of Dutch links from Rye-Florentz's time at Borealis, including the chartering relationship to North Sea Tankers and a shareholding in RFOcean vessels by Nederlandse Beleggingsmaatschappij voor Zeeschepen (NBZ).
RFOcean also controls one panamax containership — the 3,398-teu Tim S (built 2005) — that is on charter to Maersk.
On the financier's side, the transactions are the latest in a steady series of mostly tanker financings by Fleetscape ranging from VLCC to small chemical carriers.
Headed by US-Norwegian ship-finance veteran Tobias Backer, Fleetscape is the alternative finance affiliate of New York's Oaktree Capital Management.
Fleetscape has helped to power the ongoing rapid growth of Indonesia's Buana Lintas Lautan (BULL) in acquiring LR2 tankers from Maersk Tankers. It has also financed most of the fleet of Advantage Tankers, a company that bought up the tankers controlled by Geden Lines.
On the seller's side, a deal — if completed — would leave the owner with no ships of more than 10,000 dwt. ABC Maritime sold off its last handysize bulkers to Navibulgar in 2017.
It retains six small clean tankers and four asphalt carriers besides a number of offshore vessels.
More ABC sales
The ships linked to RFOcean were two of four sisterships built at China's Yangfan Zhoushan shipyard in the ABC Maritime fleet. The Greek company offloaded the others — the 19,100-dwt Adfines Sea and Adfines Star — to Canada's McKeil Marine in February for a reported $12m each. They have since been renamed Northern Spirit and Atlantic Spirit.
But ABC Maritime remains manager of both after the sale to McKeil Marine, and also of two other chemical tankers — the 13,900-dwt Hinch Spirit (built 2009) and Wicky Spirit (built 2008) — that McKeil Marine had previously acquired from Turkey's Transal Denizcilik Ticaret.
