d’Amico Tankers, a subsidiary of d’Amico International Shipping, has exercised its purchase option under the bareboat charter-in agreement relating to MT High Freedom, a 49,999 tonnes deadweight ‘MR’ vessel built in January 2014 at Hyundai-Mipo, South Korea, for an amount of US$20.1 million. d’Amico Tankers is expected to acquire full ownership of the vessel in April 2023.
To date, the DIS fleet comprises 36 double hull product tankers (MR, Handysize and LR1, of which 20 owned, 8 chartered-in and 8 bareboat chartered-in), with an average age for owned and bareboat charter equal to approximately 7.6 years.
Paolo d’Amico, President and Chief Executive Officer of d’Amico International Shipping, said: “Through this transaction, we acquire full ownership of MT High Freedom, a modern and ‘Eco’ MR, built in 2014 by one of the leading shipyards Koreans, which we sold and leased back in 2018 and which, at least for the time being, we intend to leave debt-free. This transaction therefore allows us to continue with our plan to deleverage and breakeven DIS, while increasing our strategic flexibility.”