New York: US-listed Greek tanker owner Tsakos Energy Navigation (TEN) has
confirmed investing around $230m in two aframax and two panamax tanker
newbuildings. The Greek-based company says it has booked the 105,000dwt aframaxes in Sumitomo HI of Japan and splashed out on two 73,000dwt panamax product tanker resales at Sungdong Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering of South Korea.
In an announcement to the New Stock Stock Exchange September 12, TEN
said the 105,000-tonners are sister ships of the four already on order
for it at the yard for delivery mid-2007 and end-2008. Delivery of the
new units is slated for the third and fourth quarters of 2009.
TEN snapped up the panamaxes, which were being built on Sungdong's
account, for $54.5m a piece. Thus some $60m each is being paid for the
larger ships.
The company also confirmed it has sold the 40,000dwt Libra (built 1988) and its
sister vessel Crux (built 1987) for a capital gain of $12.5m in the
third quarter of 2006 and $30m addition to cash flow. This pair went to
Mumbai-based Pratibha Shipping for $33.5m enbloc.
TEN president and ceo Nicos Tsakos, said: "The transactions support the
company's strategy which views the sale & purchase market as an integral
part of operations. On various occasions in the past, when we felt that
a material capital gain could be realised and without upsetting the core
structure of our fleet, we proceeded in replacing various aged vessels
with state-of-the art newbuildings to fulfill our charterers' future
needs. Since the beginning of the year, we have successfully completed
27 sale & purchase transactions, including newbuilding orders and
deliveries, that not only generated capital gains of over $61m, but also
managed to reduce the already low average age of our fleet to 5.7
years."
TEN's proforma fleet now stands at 53 ships of 5.6m dwt, 36 of which are
operational today. The newbuilding programme has 17 ships, one LR
aframax product carrier, six aframax crude transporters, two suezmaxes,
two panamax product tankers, five handysize product carriers, and an
LNG carrier. [13/09/06]
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