Sales of the Xihe Holdings fleet are being recorded in high numbers.
Multiple broking reports this week carry the news that Xihe, a company linked to financially troubled Ocean Tankers, has sold three Chinese-built VLCCs to Maran Tankers for $110m en bloc. A total of 11 bids were lodged for the three tankers – Pu Tuo San, Tai Hung San and Tai San with John Angelicoussis’s Maran sealing the winning bid.
Several other vessels under Xihe Holdings are also being sold off including the LR2 sisters Ocean Trader and Ocean Pegasus, the MR2 Bei Jiang and the handy tanker Ocean Victory.
Xihe Holdings is part of the Lim family business empire, which also includes oil trader Hin Leong Trading and fleet manager Ocean Tankers. Judicial managers were brought in to look after much of the group after a huge hole was unearthed in Hin Leong’s finances earlier this year.
In related news, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has suspended the bunker licences of Hin Leong Trading subsidiary, Ocean Bunkering Services (OBS). OBS, which has not been able to sell fuel since April, was ranked last year as the third largest bunker fuel supplier in Singapore.