Greece’s Angelicoussis Group is not resting on its laurels after making a big entry into the niche market of shuttle tankers.
The giant shipowner ordered three new vessels in South Korea earlier this year, before agreeing to buy the 18-ship fleet of UK-based Altera Shuttle Tankers (AST) from Altera Infrastructure on Wednesday.
“Our long-term objective and plan is to continue to grow this company to become the premier owner and most profitable company in this segment over time,” the Greek company said in a presentation to investors.
The AST takeover will rank Angelicoussis Group second in terms of shuttle tankers, behind only Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers, which has 28 vessels.
Deputy chief executive Sveinung Stohle said: “The acquisition of Altera means that our group will become the number two, or the second largest owner in this segment. Obviously, we are very, very pleased with the Altera platform, the people and the tankers.”
“We see a lot of similarities between how Altera has been running its business, the longevity of the contracts, the very solid experience of the people, with what we do here in Maran Tankers, and also in the two other companies actually,” he told the call.
“So our clear objective is to continue to grow Altera shuttle tankers over time … and to make sure that this company continues to be hopefully even better and more profitable in the time to come,” Stohle added.
VesselsValue assesses the AST fleet as worth $2.16bn.
Asked about a price tag for the transaction, Angelicoussis chief financial officer Andrew Papachristodoulou told the analyst call: “We’d like to keep the acquisition price confidential.”
The tanker, LNG carrier and bulker owner’s deputy CEO explained the main reason for the deal.
Interest from clients
“First of all we as a group decided a year ago that we wanted to enter the shuttle tanker market, seeing both long-term contracts and attractive returns,” Stohle told the call.
It was very important for the group that the major clients in the shuttle tanker market are actually already existing clients, both for standard LNG carriers and also large tankers, he said.
“So it’s something that fits very well with the portfolio of clients that we already have,” Stohle added.
“That was a main driver for us and clearly some of them had asked us or discussed with us on several occasions if we were interested in entering this segment. So that’s why we decided to do that,” the deputy boss continued.
The three new shuttle tankers have been signed up with Brazilian state producer Petrobras on term deals on delivery from Daehan Shipbuilding in 2026 and 2027.
Asked if these vessels will join the Altera platform, Stohle said: “That is something that we are looking at.”
“I think for all intents and purposes, the way we look at this is that Altera Shuttle Tankers will be a fourth leg in our group, and we will see with Altera what is the most efficient and best way to take delivery of and operate those vessels,” he added.
“We have time to consider that, so we’ll make that decision when we get there,” Stohle said.
