South Korea’s Sinokor Merchant Marine is expected to become a shareholder in Torm after being identified in the market as the owner of a fleet of MR tankers sold to the Danish company on Monday.
Torm said it was paying $340m for the Hyundai Mipo Dockyard-built ships dating from 2014 and 2015.
The US and Denmark-listed company will hand over $238m in cash and $102m in the form of 2.65m shares.
This equates to $38.50 per share, against a trading price of $37.90 in New York on Monday.
Torm’s market cap is $3.5bn. Sinokor would have a stake of around 3% if the deal goes through.
Brokers listed the vessels, of around 50,000 dwt in capacity, as the Beryl, Quartz, Silver Hague and Silver Rotterdam from 2015.
The Beryl and Quartz are controlled by Sinokor, but owned by China’s Bank of Communications Financial Leasing through leases.
Those built in 2014 are the Silver Monika, Silver Emily, Silver Amanda and Silver Carla, brokers say.
Sinokor has been contacted for comment.
Values up sharply
Torm said the vessels will join the fleet in the third and fourth quarters. Six of the tankers are fitted with scrubbers.
VesselsValue assesses the octet as worth about $345m in total.
Values have risen steeply over the past two years. The Silver Rotterdam, for example, is now valued at $43m, up from $33.61m two years ago.
Sinokor controls a mixed fleet worth $7.6bn, according to VesselsValue: 19 VLCCs, 11 aframaxes, two panamaxes and 26 other MR and handysizes, plus bulkers, boxships and LNG carriers.
