New York-listed Tsakos revealed a VLCC deal with York Capital, first uncovered by TradeWinds, would be funded via cash and shares.
Its second quarter reported also disclosed a $122m twin suezmax purchase, first reported on these pages in the past week.
Benchmark confirmed
TEN priced the VLCCs from York at $193.9m, or $96.95m each, providing a further definite marker for VLCC resales after the $96m Euronav paid for each of the four tankers it took from Metrostar this summer.
TEN has issued 2,626,357 shares to York and posted a $14m cheque to fund that deal.
The Greek owner will take delivery of the newbuildings from Hyundai Samho in South Korea during 2016.
TradeWinds reported earlier this week that TEN had bought two suezmaxes from Yasa, with the Turkish owner’s other two suezmaxes being snapped up by Nordic American Tankers.
Brokers have identified the two TEN bound suezmaxes as the 158,000-dwt Yasa Orion (built 2012) and Yasa Polaris (built 2009). TEN will use cash and traditional bank debt to fund the suezmax buy.
In line with its guidance in the previous quarter, TEN has also offloaded some of its older vessels.
Its quarterly report said a first generation suezmax and handysize product tanker were sold for a collectible $43m.
Five fresh fixtures
In a strong market, TEN has also fixed out one of its suezmaxes and four of its MRs on period contracts.
The suezmax has gone for a 30-month deal and the MRs for two years with a 12-month option on charters that take the owner’s secured contract backlog to $1.4bn.
Nikolas Tsakos, chief executive of TEN, said: “We are particularly pleased that together with very solid results, the company is in the fortunate position to report premium charters, accretive acquisitions and profitable sales.
“All these reinforce TEN’s position as a company of choice for highly rated end users and financial investors looking for a well balanced tanker entity with good visibility and upside potential.”
Profit beats projections
The busy report saw TEN reveal a profit of $41.3m for the three months to the end of June, against a modest gain of $200,000 in the same period of 2014.
Earnings per share of $0.45 beat the Street by five cents.
“With the strongest tanker market since 2008 and with a larger and more advanced fleet compared to then, we expect the company’s financial performance to excel and be reflected on our bottom line and our share price going forward,” Tsakos said.
