The world's largest crude-tanker owner is getting no credit for paying a big shareholder dividend and arguably none for being a public company, and might want to consider dropping both the payout and the listing.

This is not your typical advice from a shipping equity analyst, but Deutsche Bank's Amit Mehrotra sent it to Euronav management on Monday in the form of an "open letter" that was broadly praising of the Belgian company's track record as stewards of capital.