Norwegian tycoon Trond Mohn’s tanker owning company Nyhill Shipping is working on a sale of one of its two oldest vessels as MR tanker values continue to swell.
Broking reports last Friday reported that the 47,128-dwt chemical/product tanker Jo Ask (built 2007) had gone to a Middle East-based buyer for around $20.5m, a price that would represent a substantial increase from the last comparable deal.
But Ketil Nystad, a managing partner in the company that commercially manages Mohn’s ships, told TradeWinds the report is premature.
“We are working on it, but there is nothing to write about yet,” Nystad told TradeWinds.
He expressed reluctance to comment further pending the sale.
Shipbroker Clarkson’s compared the price reported for the Jo Ask to that of a similar Korean-built ship, the 46,177-dwt Seabright (built 2006), which brought in $18.5m earlier this month though just a thousand tonnes lighter and a year older. Both ships are fitted with ballast water treatment systems.
Bergen-based Nyhill controls a fleet of four LR1 chemical/product tankers built in 2012 and 2013 plus four MR chemical/product tankers of somewhat older vintage, including the Jo Ask and one more Hyundai Mipo-built sister.
Fleet data provider VesselsValue lists one of the ships on charter to Vitol and the rest in product tanker pools operated by Norden, Maersk, and Hafnia.
The identity of the owner is variously reported by reference sources.
Bergen entrepreneur and investor Mohn is one of Norway’s richest men, and is the major shareholder in financial brokerage Arctic Securities. He has interests in several industries, as well as a high political profile well to the left of his peers.
In shipping his ownership interests are mostly in shares of single-vessel entities through his investment vehicle Meteva, rather than at the corporate ownership level. He is involved in product tankers, gas and offshore through stakes in vessels in the fleet of Rederiet Stenersen, LNG-carrier owner Knutsen OAS, and Island Offshore. The Knutsen OAS exposure came from a transaction last year in which he took over the former LNG interests of compatriot shipowner Jens Ulltveit-Moe.
His son Frederik Mohn is also a significant shipowner through investment vehicle Perestroika, which is a shareholder in private tanker owner Viken Crude in partnership with Tom Steckmest.
Product tanker-owning company Nyhill Shipping is, however, 100% owned by the elder Mohn.
Managing partners Ketil Nystad and Stig Hilland own 30% each in the similarly named operating and management company Nyhill Shipping and Trading, where they are in charge of commercial management, while Mohn owns the remaining shares.
Nystad and Hilland were colleagues at Bergen-based Jo Tankers until 2016 when that company sold most of its fleet to crosstown rival Stolt-Nielsen and they formed their own company to manage a part of the Jo Tankers fleet that was not part of the deal.
Nyhill’s current fleet also includes vessels acquired subsequently to that transaction.
