On October 11, ship owning fund Pelagic Partners in partnership with Cypriot outfit Interorient Shipmanagement took delivery of the MR2 product tanker Star Osprey. The vessel, built in 2007, will join the Norient Product Pool. The price was below recent averages and competitive especially with regards to the very low order book.
The latest acquisition enables the Pelagic Fund I to stretch into its fourth promising segment after Bulkers, PCTC and LPG. “With the acquisition of Star Osprey, we believe to have positioned ourselves into the right stage in the Product Tanker cycle, which we are bullish towards for 2022 and beyond”, says Atef Abou Merhi, Managing Director of Pelagic Partners. “After the peak storage volumes in 2020, the world oil reserves decreased to even below average figures. Currently, oil demand is slowly but surely reaching pre-pandemic levels again, and a more complex trade with new product flows has emerged, demanding higher ton miles. It will not be long before the market returns to healthy levels.”
Further LPG coasters
Additionally, beginning of September two further LPG carriers were acquired by Pelagic Partners together with Danish gas shipping specialist B-Gas A/S: B-Gas Saturn and B-Gas Jupiter, bringing the total number of LPG carriers controlled by the Fund I to five. The two semi-ref LPG carriers were built in 2003 and 2004 and offer capacities of about 3,000 cbm each.
Closing Fund I, opening Fund II
Through the latest additions, Fund I comprises of a total of eight vessels. It has a current value of around 60 million USD, which are well diversified and with minimal downside risk. Hence, Fund I has been completed and officially closed.
Preparations are on-going to kick off Pelagic Fund II in January 2022. “Given the success of Fund I with an AUM target of 50 million USD, we look forward to go even bigger with our new Fund II, which has an AUM target of 100 million USD”, says Atef Abou Merhi.
The investment philosophy of the upcoming Fund II will be based on the successful core principles of Fund I: opportunistic and diversified, with a focus on shipping segments in which the Fund Managers have core expertise. Fund II will furthermore prioritize eco-friendly projects to support the efforts to decarbonize the shipping industry. Upon the start of Fund II, an internal ESG program will commence with one of the market leaders in this segment in order to handle in-house reporting transparently, according to all ESG standards and in line with the investment philosophy stated above. Pelagic Partners expects the Fund’s first ESG report during Q2 2022.
H.M. Pelagic Partners RAIF V.C.I.C. Plc is a Registered Alternative Investment Fund (“RAIF”), registered with the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) with Registration Number RAIF30. The RAIF is externally managed by GMM Global Money Managers AIFM Ltd, licensed and regulated by the CySEC, License No. AIFM 33/56/2013.
Pelagic Partners focuses on maritime investments, aiming at family offices, high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors. Operations started in August 2020 with “Pelagic Fund I”. All vessels are technically managed or supervised by the Hartmann Group.
The founders of Pelagic Partners are involved with all aspects of the technical and commercial management of the different vessel types as well as crewing, thus understanding and controlling the complete value chain for the successful investment into shipping assets. They are experienced, independent shipowners and managers themselves, deeply involved in different subsegments of the shipping markets and have access to deal flows and shipping investment opportunities, which is why Pelagic Partners operates like a traditional ship owning company. By running the vessels in-house and tapping into a wide industry network, Pelagic Partners is able to contribute significantly to the return on investment.
Source: Pelagic Partners