The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) announced that its National Chemical Carriers subsidiary entered a deal on 24th February 2016 to purchase five second-hand Medium Range tankers.
The vessels were built in 2014 at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in South Korea for Scorpio Tankers Inc.
As disclosed, the ships were bought for a total purchase price of USD 166.5 million.
Scorpio Tankers said that the product tankers in question are STI Chelsea, STI Lexington, STI Mythos, STI Olivia and STI Powai.
Scorpio added that it will record a write-down of approximately USD 3.2 million during the first quarter of 2016 in connection with the entry into this agreement.
The five ships will be delivered to NCC between 1st February and 30th June 2016.
Bahri said that the financial implication of these five MRs is expected during the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2016.
The buying spree comes as Bahri reports a 240% increase in net profit for 2015, reaching SAR 1.81 billion (USD 484 million) against SAR 533.8 million reported in 2014.
The upswing in net income is mainly due to an increase in operating revenues as a result a bigger VLCC fleet after completing the merger with Vela Marine International and buying and receiving several VLCCs and chemical tankers during 2015.
At the end of 2015, Bahri’s fleet consisted of seventy five vessels; from which 33 are VLCCs and 26 are chemical tankers.