Bob Burke’s Ridgebury Tankers is set to pocket a tidy profit from the sale of a VLCC bought only 18 months ago
Ridgebury surprised the market with an eye-catching swoop for three tankers from DHT Holdings and one from Euronav in late 2017.
The company has now sold one of the quartet – the Ridgebury Eagle (built 2002) – at a time VLCC prices have been rising.
Market sources are pegging the transaction at $29m, which would be a strong number and is said to represent its specifications and good condition.
It also marks a healthy premium on the $24.30m Ridgebury paid for the tanker in 2017.
The ship is believed to have been purchased by a Malaysian offshore buyer for FPSO conversion.
Typically, such transactions involve long subjects, however, sources indicate the deal was signed promptly this week and the ship will be delivered soon
Overall Ridgebury paid $66.5m for the three DHT VLCCs and a further $22m to Euronav for the 298,000-dwt Artois (built 2001).
The transaction captured attention at the time given Ridgebury moved for older tonnage at a time eyes were first turning to IMO 2020 emissions laws.
Ridgebury chief executive Burke told TradeWinds at the time: “What we tried to do is design a deal where there is very, very little chance of losing any money.”
“If you get a good ship, well managed, and an exit you want at the end of the life of the ship,” he said. “You get the same volatility, the same upside, and if you hit it right you can make a lot of money.
Like Ridgebury’s previous four-ship move in the VLCC market in 2015, the 2017 deal had been entered into as a four to five year investment to take the tankers to the end of their trading lives.
However, Ridgebury always keeps an open mind to divestment opportunities should they make sense, as is the case now.
