Secondhand tanker deals have been decelerating from their frenetic pace last year, but the market still offers ample scope for a merry-go-round of profitable transactions.
Clarksons’ analysts count around 40 oil carriers changing hands between 1 January and 27 January, down from an average of 66 tankers per month in the second half of 2022.
A slowdown in investment was “long due”, given the “amazing run” the market had for more than six months, argued Eva Tzima, head of research at Seaborne Shipbrokers in a report earlier in January.
“Those investors exploring candidates [are] now focusing exclusively on those available very promptly, leaving vessels offering March onwards delivery with very few suitors, if any,” she said.
One such prompt vessel was sold by Lila Global, which doubled its money on a 16-year-old product tanker.
The independent trading fleet arm of cash buyer Global Marketing Systems has received about $20m for the 51,300-dwt Lila Amazon (built 2007), according to ship management sources.
This represents a profit margin of more than 100%, as Lila Global acquired the ship for about $9.8m in November 2021.
The new owner of the Lila Amazon is Turkey’s Besiktas Group, which has renamed it Mostar.
This comes as no surprise.
Managing director Yavuz Kalkavan told TradeWinds last summer that Besiktas was getting increasingly excited about the tanker market and was planning to expand its presence there.
True to his word, Kalkavan has acquired four MRs and one small chemical tanker since, in deals that boosted Besiktas’ owned fleet to 30 ships — almost all of them tankers.
Climbing so steeply, so fast
Lila Global stands ready to pull off a similarly profitable asset play.
According to market sources, it is in talks to dispose of the 72,500-dwt Lila Alabama (built 2004) — an LR1 product tanker it had acquired in early 2022, presumably for just below $10m.
Some brokers report that Lila has already agreed to flip the vessel for $21m. TradeWinds, however, understands that the ship is still under negotiation.
The tanker sale market has been climbing so fast and so steeply that the same vessels can produce asset plays for consecutive buyers.
Lila Global generated about $10m in profit late last summer from the $27.8m sale of the 113,800-dwt Lila Fujairah (built 2007), a ship listed as an LR2 but trading in dirty products.
Barely five months later, its latest owners — identified by S&P Global Market as serial, United Arab Emirates-based tanker buyer Fractal Marine — have turned around to sell it at yet another fat profit.
London brokers reported that the Lila Fujairah, which is now trading as Aether, has found new buyers for $37m.
Asset plays also extend to the suezmax sector, where US-based brokers report that clients of low-profile Edge Maritime are selling the 159,200-dwt Amoroza (built 2001) for $27m.
Edge, a company that several market sources were linking to Greek owner Vassilis Bacolitsas at the time it was set up in 2020, took over management of the Amoroza in February that year. At about the same time, brokers reported the ship as sold on the secondhand market for $17.8m.
