Few in shipping would have noticed when, in October 2018, one-ship holding company Pegasus 88 Limited was incorporated in Hong Kong.
Four months later and equally unnoticed, the company took out a $24m loan from Nord/LB's Singapore branch to help finance the 291,312-dwt tanker Tian Ma Zuo (built 1998). The loan was guaranteed by Kunlun Shipping.
Come summertime, the vessel was identified by independent ship monitor TankerTrackers and the Financial Times as receiving Iranian crude oil in a ship-to-ship transfer.
