Scerni di Navigazione is to sell two of its ships to a London-based private equity fund. Sources familiar with the matter tell Splash that the Italian shipping company has just inked an MoA with a financial investor which will buy in the coming months the two LR1 tankers, SN Federica and SN Azzurra (72,300 dwt; built 2003) at current market prices. According to VesselsValue.com the present value of the cited ships – whose buy was financed by Unicredit Bank – stands at some $19m for each unit.
Other two LR2 tanker ships, SN Olivia and SN Claudia (110,000 dwt; built 2009), are part of Scerni’s fleet and also those vessels are intended to be sold to the same private equity fund before the end of the year.
Once the deal is closed, the Genoa-based Scerni family will definitely exit the shipowning arena focusing on logistics, ship agency and land transport activities in Italy. Nevertheless in the past Scerni di Navigazione’s ceo, Paolo Scerni, said that a new technical role in support of financial investors investing in ships would be feasible for the company in the future.
The Italian’s shipping group in the last few years was rumoured to have also supported Blackstone in ordering some handysize tanker newbuildings in South Korea.
