Private equity shipowning venture Dee4Capital Partners has secured loans to fund up to three additional vessels for its growing MR tanker fleet.
Dee4, which is led by Danish shipping veteran Carsten Mortensen, said the ships will be acquired through Mizuho Marubeni Leasing Corp.
We take it nice, slow and steady and only move if see a good deal
Carsten Mortensen
The company said the first drawdown on this loan facility will be used to complete its purchase of the 50,100-dwt product tanker Eagle Melbourne (2011).
The ship was acquired in July for around $16m.
The vessel, which is to be renamed Dee4 Fig, will be the sixth ship in Dee4 Capital Fund I.
The tanker has been chartered to Danish owner Norden for one to two years from late 2020.
The remaining cash will be used to fund two additional vessels.
Mortensen told TradeWinds that Dee4 is typically conservatively geared.
"We take it nice, slow and steady and only move if [we] see a good deal," he said.
Dee4 Fig takes the company’s fleet to eight vessels.
These include two newbuildings held in a separate joint venture, which are due for delivery in 2021.
Mortensen, who served as chief executive and president of Norden between 2005 and 2014, said Dee4 looks forward to growing its relationship with Mizuho Marubeni Leasing in the next phase of its development.
Dee4, which Mortensen set up last year, has been steadily adding to its fleet with secondhand purchases.
The company now has six Japanese-built MR tankers, three of which are chartered to trader Gunvor, two to Norden with one operating in the Hafnia pool.
In July, Dee4 made its first newbuilding move. The company teamed up in private partnership with Danish footwear maker ECCO and Gunvor to invest in two MR tankers at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard.
The ships are due for delivery in 2021, and the partners are sitting on options for another pair of newbuildings.
