Trico sells AHTS

Trico Marine has continued its recent tonnage clearout with the sale of an anchor handling tug supply vessel, it is claimed.

Trico chief, Joe Compofelice.

It has sold the 168-tbp Northern Corona (built 1992) which has been laid-up in Haugesund for the last few months, brokers say.

A price of between $16m and $17m has been put on the vessel, which is understood to have been bought by a Chinese shipowner.

Brokers say the same ship would have been worth around $40m at the height of the offshore boom, but there are no recent deals which are considered a fair comparison.

Trico is said to be keen to dispose of the ship, which has had a for sale board up since October 2009.

This, a decline in the offshore market and the fact it is no longer considered a front line vessel in the North Sea have contributed to the price.

Discussions with the Chinese buyer have been ongoing for a few weeks, and some suggest the sale may not yet be rubber stamped.

The Northern Corona, which was laid-up in November, looks to be the fourth offshore vessel sold by the Nasdaq-listed shipowner in recent months.

In October it sold the 170-tbp Northern Challenger (built 1992) to Huawei Offshore at around $15m, TradeWinds reported. The ship has since been renamed, Huapeng.

At the same time, Great Offshore bought the 4,496-dwt Northern Clipper (built 1994) from Trico for around $20m. It is now trading at the Malaviya Seven.

In May Fletcher Shipping paid around $26m for the 4,500-dwt Northern Gambler (built 1996), now known as the FS Pegasus.

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