Well-heeled Hong Kong and mainland investors are among those being targeted by a shipping group that aims to buy and charter four to six oil tankers worth up to US$200 million in a customised club deal.
Speaking after meeting potential Hong Kong investors, Rasmus Bach Nielsen, chief executive of Singapore-based company Origoo, said final negotiations were taking place on the first project, in which investors would be able to buy a US$16 million stake in a vessel worth up to US$30 million.
Bach Nielsen said ship ownership was a hedge against inflation because the replacement cost of vessels increased along with inflation.
He said the tankers acquired by Origoo investors would specialise in transporting fuel oil or refined oil products such as petrol, jet fuel or chemicals over relatively long distances, such as between the Middle East and Asia or the Middle East and North America.
The tanker market generally has been buffeted by too much tonnage, which has put pressure on charter rates.
But Bach Nielsen was at pains to point out that the oil products sector was a lot different from the crude oil tanker market, with fewer new vessels on order.
The current order book for product vessels, so-called clean tankers, was about 15 per cent of the existing fleet. Meanwhile, demand for these vessels was forecast to grow by 5.5 per cent per year over the next few years, compared with supply growth of 3.2 per cent per year.