Equity researcher Amit Mehrotra is rarely shy about taking a strong stance on the shipping stocks he covers, and on Thursday he made his opinion quite clear on the prospective merger between tanker owners Frontline and Euronav.

Euronav plus Frontline is good.

Euronav plus a decarbonisation arm of Belgian owner CMB? Not so much.

“The shipping industry has a history of failed attempts at using other people’s money to make long-duration and speculative investments.