New York-listed Scorpio Tankers has sold its oldest tankers in deals worth $179m.
The Emanuele Lauro-led owner said it had agreed transactions to offload five ships — four built in 2012 and one in 2013.
The scrubber-fitted 2012 vessels are the 50,000-dwt STI Garnet, STI Onyx, STI Ruby and STI Topaz.
These are going for $142.5m to three separate unnamed buyers.
The 50,000-dwt STI Beryl (built 2013), which has no exhaust-gas cleaner, has been contracted to be sold for $36.6m.
“The company will make no debt repayments associated with these sales as these vessels are unencumbered. The sales are expected to close within the third quarter of 2024,” Scorpio said.
The deals will mean Scorpio only has tankers dating from 2014 and after.
The sales come after TradeWinds reported two disposals in March.
The product tanker giant said it had offloaded the 50,000-dwt STI Larvotto and STI Le Rocher (both built 2013) for $36.2m each.
The buyer was not disclosed.
Reports confused
News of this deal came after confusion in the market over the sale of five other MR tankers — the 50,000-dwt STI Bronx, STI Brooklyn, STI Manhattan, STI Queens and STI Gramercy (all built 2015) — reported by brokers.
But TradeWinds learned that the reports conflated the New York-themed Scorpio vessels with the sextet purchased by fellow US owner International Seaways from Wayzata Investment Partners.
In December, Scorpio said it was continuing its huge vessel buyback drive in improving markets.
The shipowner agreed to repay debt or lease financing tied to 13 ships over the ensuing four months.
In October, the company said it was repurchasing 22 vessels from financiers.
