Stathis Topouzoglou-led Prime Marine, a diverse Greek tanker player, has cashed in on the ongoing upturn, selling a string of LR tankers in the first quarter of the year.
Sources tell Splash that fast growing Mumbai owner Gatik Ship Management has snapped up two ice-classed, 74,000 dwt tankers, the River Shiner and Emerald Shiner, both built in 2005 at STX in South Korea.
In June last year Gatik entered the shipowning business as one of a host of new names shuttling oil from Russia to India. Since then it has built up a tanker fleet worth more than $1.4bn, becoming the fastest-growing Indian shipowner of all time.
Prime Marine has also sold a third same-sized tanker, the 16-year-old, New Times-built Sand Shiner. This ship has been sold to an undisclosed Greek account.
No price tag is attached to the sale of the three scrubber-fitted ships, however online pricing portal VesselsValue estimates that the owner will have cashed over $70m on the three ships, while also polishing Prime Marine’s fleet average that stands at 13 years of age.
Prime marine is a ship management company and not a ship owner. Other owner companies have cached these money.