Industry sources say the Belgian owner has sealed the purchase of the 15 tankers, which has been the target of a $1bn move from Georgiopoulos-led Genmar in recent months.
It was thought Genmar was in the home straight after a battle to secure funding for the project, but the word on the industry grapevine is that Marc Saverys and Peter Livanos-controlled Euronav has taken the ships at the eleventh hour.
Shares suspended
Shares in Euronav are currently suspended pending a statement from the owner, which has added punch given a $150m pact which saw it join forces with GoldenTree Asset Management and York Capital a couple of weeks ago.
Industry experts say the arrival of the new investors gave Euronav the firepower to move at a time it has revealed plans to take up a listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
Both Euronav and Genmar executives could not be reached for comment on the situation today.
Could move rapidly
Hugo De Stoop, chief finance officer of Euronav, told TradeWinds before Christmas: “Do not count on us to order speculative newbuildings for the spot market. The value for us as well as for the markets is in the secondhand ships and they can all be retrofitted into eco-ships.”
De Stoop declined to mention any target at that stage and explains there are no active purchase negotiations underway. “But in shipping it is not difficult to structure a deal, so things could change rapidly,” he said.
Genmar's long chase
Genmar’s quest to buy 15 VLCCs from Maersk — tipped since 7 August by TradeWinds — had still not still come to fruition before the holiday, but sources were pouring cold water on reports that the deal has fizzled, shrunk or significantly changed form.
Genmar in the run up to Christmas clinched a recapitalisation and amortisation relief from its lenders into 2016.
New York-based Genmar closed a $200m infusion of new equity that comes both from majority owner Oaktree Capital and from a collection of Wall Street institutional investors, chief financial officer Leo Vrondissis confirmed in response to questions from TradeWinds.
Genmar was understood to have had an exclusivity period with Maersk which was set to lapse tomorrow.
