Greece’s Tsangaris family has made its first visible shipping move in years, setting up a company active in oil carriers.
Westport Tankers — an entity listed in the same neoclassical office building in Piraeus as original family company Tsangaris Bros — obtained a licence from Greek authorities at the end of April.
That was just about the time when the company or clients thereof made their first transaction, picking up the 106,100-dwt LR2 tanker Makronissos (built 2002).
The ship was among a group of tankers that Greek peer Eletson Corp sold off to meet its payment obligations to bondholders and leasing partners.
Brokers reported the vessel as sold to unknown buyers for between $10m and $10.5m at the time. The Makronissos has since emerged under Westport management and is currently trading as Nikki.
Westport managers did not respond to a request for comment.
Tsangaris Bros managing director Michael Tsangaris has also been serving as a managing director of Westport Tankers since April, according to his LinkedIn page.
Tsangaris Bros, an outfit exclusively active in bulkers, last made headlines almost seven years ago when lenders seized three of its Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group)-constructed sisterships. The last vessel in that trio to go was the 27,800-dwt bulker Niki T.
The company has been listed with a single handysize vessel since — the 32,500-dwt Tanta T (built 2011).
Tsangaris Bros was set up in the mid-1980s but members of the family have been active in shipping for more than a century.
Eletson, which sold the Makronissos to Westport Tankers, has divested most of its oil carriers in a bid to ease financial pressures that have been building for years.
Other buyers of former Eletson Tankers include Zodiac Maritime, Castor Maritime and Capital Ship Management. Oaktree Capital Management also seems to have a debt or equity stake in four Eletson handymax oil carriers since July last year, according to IHS Markit data .
Eletson’s website still features 17 tankers but that includes almost all of the vessels sold under their new names. TradeWinds understands that Eletson maintains technical or commercial management in several of them.
