American Eagle Tankers (AET), a subsidiary of Malaysian shipping line MISC Bhd, said that it will acquire all the remaining shares of Paramount Tankers, making the latter its wholly owned subsidiary.
AET will acquire Golden Energy Tanker Holdings’ 50% stake in Paramount Tankers, a joint venture between the two companies that owns and operates six aframax vessels.
AET did not disclose the value of the deal, which is expected to be completed by September this year.
AET President & CEO, Captain Rajalingam Subramaniam, says: “We are continually looking for opportunities to ensure sustainable growth in our business and to own / operate modern tonnage which serves our customer needs globally. Acquiring the Paramount JV in its entirety allows us to own and operate all six vessels on our own."
Rajalingam adds: "We are the commercial managers for the vessels and have commenced taking over the technical management. The vessels are of a high quality design and built to our lightering specifications and can trade world - wide to serve our global client needs. This transaction demonstrates our commitment to our customers, shareholders, stakeholders and the industry we operate in."
He goes on to say: “Paramount Tankers has been an extremely successful joint venture and I’d like to thank our partners for their unwavering support over the past six years.”
The decision follows MISC Berhad’s decision to merge its chemical fleet with the clean petroleum products fleet operated by AET, announced in March.
Under the arrangement, AET is taking over the 13 chemical vessels and one LPG tanker currently owned/operated by MISC and combining them with its own fleet of eight CPPs to create a new, single entity.
AET operates 96 vessels comprising 12 VLCCs, four Suezmaxes, one Panamax tanker, 50 Aframaxes, four DP tankers, eight clean petroleum products tankers, three LR2 tankers, 13 chemical tankers, and one LPG tanker. Its orderbook includes two Suezmaxes, four Aframaxes, and two LR2 tankers.
