Euronav has amassed its massive tanker fleet via two of shipping's largest mergers-and-acquisitions deals in the past decade.

After paying $980m for Maersk Tankers’ 15 VLCCs in 2014, the Belgian tanker giant took over Gener8 Maritime’s fleet of 30 vessels via swaps of shares valued at $504m nearly four years later.

Both transactions occurred during the down cycles.