CMB.TECH continues fleet rejuvenation with Suezmax sale

CMB.TECH has sold another of its tankers as part of what the company said is a fleet rejuvenation strategy. 

The Saverys family owned shipping giant announced the sale in its Q2 results for 2025, just a week after closing on a long-anticipated merger with dry bulk specialist Golden Ocean and adding some 90 vessels to the CMB.TECH fleet.

CMB.TECH’s latest sale of its 165,000-dwt Suezmax Sofia, for US$40.1M, is set to acheive a net gain of US$20.4M to the company’s ledgers when it completes, with the expected timeline in Q4 2025, according to the company.

CMB.TECH reported a net loss of US$7.6M for the quarter, as compared with a net gain of US$184.4M for the same quarter in 2024, but had advised it was including Golden Ocean’s financials in its reporting. 

As part of the merger agreement, all outstanding common shares of Golden Ocean were exchanged for newly issued ordinary shares of CMB.TECH. Shareholders received 0.95 CMB.TECH shares for each Golden Ocean share. At closing, CMB.TECH issued approximately 95.95M new ordinary shares. The resulting ownership structure sees CMB.TECH shareholders holding approximately 70% of the combined company (or 67% excluding treasury shares), while Golden Ocean shareholders hold about 30%.

CMB’s fleet renewal ambitions have seen the company selling and ordering at a rapid pace. In late April, CMB.TECH confirmed the sale of three VLCCs, 2012-built Iris and 2010-built Hakata and Hakone. It did not reveal the vessels’ price tag at the time, but the quarterly financials showed a US$57.1M net gain from 314,000-dwt Iris and a net gain of US$39.3M in the sale of the two 302.500-dwt vessels Hakata and Hakone. The three vessels were some of the oldest VLCCs in the company’s fleet.

The company has also been active in ordering vessels across multiple segments, most recently debuting Windcat Rotterdam, the first of six vessels in subsidiary Windcat’s new Elevation-series commissioning service operation vessels (CSOVs). CMB.Tech said it has 15 vessels scheduled for delivery in the second half of 2025 and is also reportedly expecting delivery of at least five newbuildings in 2026 and 2027.

"With the recent completion of the merger with Golden Ocean, adding 89 dry bulk vessels, and bringing our total fleet to around 250 ships," CMB.TECH chief executive Alexander Saverys said, "our newbuilding delivery programme continues unabated with the delivery of eight vessels: five super-eco Newcastlemaxes, two CTVs and our first CSOV. We also concluded another commercial agreement for our ammonia-powered Newcastlemaxes, this time with Fortescue. CMB.TECH’s modern fleet is well positioned to create a lot of value in the months to come, particularly thanks to our exposure to strong tanker and dry bulk markets."