Transportation Recovery Fund (TRF), a private equity fund managed out of New York and Oslo, has sold a pair of tankers.
Sources say it has sold the 37,600-dwt sister ships TRF Mandal and TRF Marquette (both built 2016) for $38m each, in a deal that continues a busy period of divestment.
Greek brokers are identifying the buyer as Sokana — a joint venture between the Interunity Group, which is led by brothers George and Christos Mangos, and Danish player Lars Ebbesen.
Managers at TRF and Interunity did not respond to requests for comment.
Market sources, however, tell TradeWinds that the deal is on and that the scrubber-fitted pair, built at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, will be delivered to its new owners in a few months.
TRF has been linked to 10 different tanker sales since October.
Some of these transactions have been confirmed, with the vessels emerging under new owners and different names.
Others are still awaiting confirmation and the relevant vessels continue to be listed with TRF under their old names.
What is confirmed is the sale of an MR in October, when TRF offloaded the 49,100-dwt TRF Bergen (renamed Hafnia Valentino, built 2015) to Hafnia for about $36m.
In a much bigger deal in February, TRF sold the 297,600-dwt VLCC TRF Horten (built 2018) for $102m.
Greece’s Tsakos Energy Navigation was briefly believed to be the buyer but the modern vessel eventually emerged with UK-based Zodiac Maritime.
The situation is less clear for other vessels on the TRF sales list.
TRF was linked in March to the sale of the 37,600-dwt TRF Mongstad and TRF Moss (both built 2016) — two identical sister ships to the TRF Mandal and TRF Marquette — for $36.5m each.
As TradeWinds reported, New York and Oslo-listed Hafnia was briefly believed to be the buyer of the TRF Mongstad and the TRF Moss at the time, but it swiftly denied any involvement in such a deal.
TRF has not commented on the alleged sale.
In April and May, TRF divested four 20,000-dwt chemical tankers, one to Denmark’s Celsius Shipping and three to Norway’s Tailwind Management, as TradeWinds reported.
If the 10 tanker sales described are eventually confirmed, TRF will have raised an estimated $420m over eight months.
TRF is managed by Norway’s Fearnley Advisors and New York’s BroadPeak Global. It used to be controlled by billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, who sold the firm in 2017 before joining the Donald Trump administration.
