Team Tankers Offloads Two More Older Ships

Bermuda-based shipping company Team Tankers International has decided to sell another two older vessels, pursuing its strategy aimed at younger ocean-going units.

In October 2019, Team Tankers agreed to sell Team Tosca and Team Toccata, the two 44,999 dwt MR2 tankers built in 2004, for USD 25.3 million.

As informed, Team Tosca is expected to be delivered to its new owner in the first quarter of 2020 and Team Toccata in the second quarter. The company recorded estimated book losses upon delivery of the vessel pair in 2019 of USD 4.8 million.

The latest disposal follows the completion of the ship trio sale in summer this year. Team Tankers informed it delivered the 2008-built Sichem Paris, the 2004-built Tambourin and the 2008-built Sichem Montreal to unnamed shipowners. In addition, the company agreed to dispose of Team Tarantella, an MR2 tanker built in 2002 which is yet to be delivered.

“We finalized the sale of the last two of our five older MRs at attractive levels, concentrating our efforts on our younger, more sophisticated, deep sea assets. With the sale of the older MRs and certain intermediate ships, we have freed up capital for investment activity and positioned ourselves for 2020 with a more focused deep sea fleet,” Hans Feringa, Team’s CEO, commented.

“We will consider additional divestment and investment activity as we continue our positioning into 2020.”

The fleet restructuring update was unveiled in the company’s financial report for the third quarter of this year which shows that Team Tankers suffered a net loss of USD 15.1 million, compared to a net loss of USD 14.5 million in the same period a year earlier. The loss on sale of vessels was USD 6.4 million in the third quarter of 2019 and USD 6.9 million in the second quarter of the year.

Team Tankers reported EBITDA of USD 13.4 million in the three-month period ended September 30, 2019, compared to USD 0.7 million posted in Q3 2018.

The company’s total freight revenue was USD 80 million in Q3 2019, compared to USD 78.9 million seen in the corresponding quarter a year earlier. Voyage expenses were USD 31.5 million in Q3 2019, against USD 35.4 million in Q3 2018. As explained, the decrease in revenue and voyage expenses was primarily a result of a weaker market during the quarter.

Team Tankers has a fleet of 47 vessels of which 33 are owned and 14 leased tankers.