China Development Bank Financial Leasing (CDB Leasing) has agreed its second major tanker acquisition deal in as many days.
The Hong Kong-listed leasing arm of state-owned China Development Bank said it is buying nine tankers from Danish shipowner Torm for $172m.
CDB Leasing did not provide a breakdown of the types of ships it is buying but identified the sellers as Torm Singapore Pte and Vesselco 10 Pte, two companies incorporated in Singapore.
US-listed Torm is present in all large vessel classes in the product tanker market with specific focus on the LR2, LR1 and MR vessel classes.
Since the beginning of 2020, the shipowner has been optimising its fleet and it has grown from 76 vessels to 84 ships on the water as of November 2021.
The increase covers the purchase of 18 vessels —13 from the secondhand market and five newbuildings — and a sale of 10 older vessels.
On Monday, CDB Leasing agreed to buy five unspecified MR tankers from Swiss commodities giant Trafigura for a total of $140m.
These are the latest in a series of major deals by the Chinese leasing company as it looks to boost its exposure to the tanker market.
In June, it purchased 10 MR product tankers of 50,000 dwt each under construction at New Times Shipbuilding for nearly $384m.
In December 2020, the company agreed to buy 14 product tankers from Maersk Tankers in a deal worth in total $422m.
CDB Leasing has also been increasing its exposure to the LNG market with two sale-and-leaseback deals with two GasLog-related companies.
In mid-October, GasLog Partners agreed the sale and leaseback of the 155,000-dwt GasLog Shanghai (built 2013) to CDB Leasing for $120m, while GasLog did a similar deal for the 155,000-cbm GasLog Salem (built 2015) to CDB Leasing for $128m.
Both vessels were taken back on five-year bareboat charters until October 2026, with no obligation to purchase them at the end of their leases.
At the end of 2020, CDB Leasing said it controlled a fleet of 110 vessels comprising 85 ships under operating leases and 25 under finance leases.
Bulkers account for more than 75% of its fleet, with container ships making up 14%. It also has three LNG carriers, two dredgers and a cruise ship.
