Concordia Maritime Inks Sale and Leaseback for Stena Image

Swedish tanker shipping company Concordia Maritime has entered a sale and leaseback agreement for the IMOIIMAX tanker Stena Image with a Japanese financial institution.

The tanker will be chartered back to Concordia Maritime on a bareboat basis for eight years, with annual purchase options from year four onwards.

Concordia Maritime said that the sale price is USD 37.5 million and delivery to the buyer is scheduled for mid-October.

“Through this transaction, we have simultaneously accomplished goals of strategic and financial importance to the company. It is a step on the way to preparing ourselves for a potentially subdued market situation and at the same time positioning the company to be able to act on good business opportunities that may arise thereof,” Kim Ullman, CEO of Concordia Maritime, said, adding that the agreement allows the company to continue employing the vessel in the Stena Weco Pool “for many years to come,”

Concordia Maritime is currently reviewing the possibility of entering into similar arrangements for a further one or more vessels in its fleet.

Stena Image, delivered to Concordia Maritime in April 2015, was the company’s first chemical and product tanker based on the IMOIIMAX concept.

Built by Chinese shipyard Guangzhou Shipbuilding International (GSI), the 50,000 dwt MR tanker is equipped with 18 tanks of the same size, each with a capacity of 3,000 m3, able to load vegetable oils and chemicals as well as petroleum products.