The Vafias Group is taking advantage of 16-year-high tanker prices to offload two aframaxes while building up its bulker fleet with a string of acquisitions.
The Chinese-built ships the Greek family is parting ways with have been trading in its fleet since their delivery as newbuildings 15 years ago.
According to market sources and brokers, the two separate deals are with Chinese buyers and are worth $83m combined.
In the first, the 113,000-dwt Gstaad Grace II (built 2009) is changing hands at $42m, while, in the second, the sister ship Afragold has fetched $41m.
The price difference could be because the Afragold is due to pass a special survey in November, while the Gstaad Grace II passed it earlier this month.
Both vessels were built at New Times Shipbuilding as part of an extensive newbuilding programme of 11 aframaxes that the Vafias clan had placed at the time with shipyards in China, Japan and South Korea.
The Gstaad Grace II was a direct newbuilding order. The Afragold, by contrast, was originally ordered by Schoeller Holdings, which then flipped the vessel to Vafias in a resale deal.
The Greek shipping clan is now selling both ships amid soaring secondhand prices.
Clarksons’ tanker secondhand price index rose in April for the ninth consecutive month to 222.65 points, up 15% year on year and its highest level since October 2008.
Clarksons’ figures show the same 16-year-high price spike for 15-year-old aframaxes as well. Price assessments for that particular type of ship even marked an unusually high jump of $3m last week, according to the London brokerage.
“Tanker secondhand prices continue to firm, with several of our … price assessments rising this week, notably in the crude sector,” Clarksons said in its 19 April report.
While the Afragold belongs to private Vafias interests, the Gstaad Grace II is in the fleet of Vafias-controlled public company Imperial Petroleum.
The US-listed outfit had acquired the ship from private Vafias interests in September last year in a $71m deal that also included the 50,700-dwt product tanker Aquadisiac (built 2008).
TradeWinds reported last month how the Greek shipowner’s private arm, Brave Maritime — one of the earliest capesize investors in the ongoing shipping cycle — is turning its attention to smaller vessels to maintain its bulker expansion drive.
In the latest such deal to emerge, the company took delivery earlier this month of the 55,600-dwt supramax Amira Miro (renamed Supra Sovereign, built 2012) — a Japanese-built vessel reported sold in mid-February by Egypt-based El Amira to undisclosed buyers for close to $19m.
