Saverys family further increases interest in Euronav
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Saverys family further increases interest in Euronav

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The Antwerp shipping family Saverys has increased its stake in the oil tanker shipping company Euronav to 14.4 percent. This puts it in a stronger position to torpedo the merger plans between Euronav and sector competitor Frontline.

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The raising of the interest by the Saverys family and its company CMB can be read in a recent participatiemelding† It mentions an interest of 14.39 percent, while that was previously ‘only’ 13.2 percent. This strengthens the Antwerp shipping family’s position as the largest shareholder of Euronav

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The Saverys family founded Euronav, but disappeared from the capital in recent years. She recently made via the shipping group CMB a comeback in her baby’s capital, after John Fredriksen, the Norwegian billionaire and owner of Frontline

, suddenly Euronav had also started buying shares. Then last week Euronav and Frontline the coming together until the world’s largest tanker company announced, the Saverys family disapproved of the deal.

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Many analysts and investors seemed to like the big tanker merger. The new group, named Frontline, Fredriksen as the largest shareholder and Euronav CEO Hugo De Stoop as captain, could benefit from the increase in scale and further consolidate the market.

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The Saverys family has a different view. She announced that she wants to present her alternative to shareholders. To block the merger, a 25 percent block is needed. Company law determines that at least three quarters of the shareholders must agree for a merger.

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The Saverys family wants to gradually switch the Euronav fleet to transport more environmentally friendly fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia.

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When The Time CMB CEO Alexander Saverys Saturday asked if he was going to buy more Euronav shares, it was already clear that that would be the case. ‘That could be good. We don’t rule that out,” he said. He also indicated that he wanted to seek help from other shareholders. On Monday, Saverys also tried to convince international investors of his plan B for Euronav through a conversation with the British business newspaper Financial Times.

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Hydrogen

The Saverys family sees no reason to get even bigger in crude oil, now that Europe wants to get rid of fossil fuels with its Green Deal. As an alternative plan, she proposes to gradually switch Euronav’s fleet to transport more environmentally friendly fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia. For example, the private company CMB.Tech, active in hydrogen projects from Antwerp to Namibia, could be brought into Euronav. The Saverys family also wants to use hydrogen and derivatives as marine fuel more quickly.

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Are investors interested in the Saverys alternative? “I don’t think so, to be honest,” says an independent Anglo-Saxon analyst. “Most investors in both Euronav and Frontline do not own shares because they want to invest in hydrogen in the long term, but because they believe in improving the fundamentals of the tanker market in the short term. With a merger you get economies of scale and more upside potential. Investments in hydrogen are a distraction from that momentum.’

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Most investors in both Euronav and Frontline do not own shares because they want to invest in hydrogen in the long term, but because they believe in improving the fundamentals of the tanker market in the short term.

An independent Anglo-Saxon analyst

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The analyst points out that Euronav has also already taken steps to reduce the CO2to reduce emissions. He suspects that the Saverys’ resistance to torpedoing the merger has another reason. ‘They want more control themselves, because then they can dictate the conditions for a collaboration or merger with their private companies or with their gas tanker shipping company Exmar,’ says the analyst.

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Sometimes it is also suggested that the Saverys family wants to sell their Euronav package for more money. Is the exchange ratio of the merger – Euronav shareholders could trade their shares for 1.45 Frontline shares – good or could it be better? The deal, with Euronav also paying a dividend first, is designed as a merger of equals. ‘The price movements after the announcement show that things are going well: a bit up and down,’ says the analyst.

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sisters

CMB and Euronav were sister companies for many years, until the family decided in 2004 to list the oil tanker company separately. Two years ago, Saverco, the family’s investment holding company, surprised with the news that it had significantly reduced its stake. The family wanted to take advantage of a price increase, it sounded then.

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Since September 14, the Saverys family has started to buy back Euronav shares. The shareholding notice shows that since the beginning of February, it has bought 19 million shares at prices ranging from 8.88 to 12.98 dollars each, good for 206 million dollars. CMB’s treasury was used for this, in addition to loans from KBC and Belfius.

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CMB and Euronav, who have always cherished a close bond, share a building on De Gerlachekaai in Antwerp. But the board and management of Euronav, which last week fully opted for the merger with Frontline, are on a different wavelength than the Saverys family.

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