Energy
The first major step in the green conversion of Belgian oil carrier Euronav was approved by shareholders on Wednesday with a Stalinist majority.
The takeover of the hydrogen company CMBTech by the Belgian listed oil shipping company Euronav was approved by an unexpectedly large majority of 99 percent during a shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday.
And while Euronav had to put up a lot of money with 1.15 billion dollars to buy the company. And it will also have to pay a very high bill in the coming years – almost two billion dollars – for the entire range of ships that CMB Tech has ordered to develop a fleet that runs completely or partially on green fuels.
The vote indicates that the oil shipping company’s shareholders want to give the plan to drastically green the shipping company a chance. This strategy was devised by Alexander Saverys, the CEO of the Belgian maritime group CMB. He succeeded in taking control of Euronav last year after a nearly two-year battle with management and then with Norwegian Cypriot shipping tycoon John Fredriksen. Saverys made no secret of the fact that he completely disagreed with the ambition of the then top management of the company and also of Fredriksen to develop a mega shipping company for the transport of crude oil.
With the acquisition of CMB’s hydrogen division, we are now moving in a different direction. Euronav will become a shipping company that not only has tankers for the transport of crude oil, but also ships that will transport chemicals, bulk products such as iron ore, containers and in the future also green fuels, as well as vessels for the offshore wind energy sector. At the same time, the CO₂ emissions of Euronav’s shipping fleet must be drastically reduced by allowing more and more ships to sail fully or partially on green alternatives to diesel.
Litmus test
It appears that this change in direction will also lead to Euronav attracting a different type of shareholders. CMB CEO Alexander Saverys said after the shareholders’ meeting that he did not expect that the takeover of CMBTech by Euronav would be approved almost unanimously. Besides the Saverys family, which owns 49 percent of Euronav with approximately 107 million shares, other shareholders supported the takeover deal, together accounting for almost 50 million shares.
Saverys also sees signals that major shareholder shifts are underway on the American stock exchange. ‘Many more Euronav shares have been traded recently than usual.’ He does not rule out that many investors who saw Euronav as a way to make short-term profits from the fluctuations in the oil price and the stock price will abandon ship. And that they will be replaced by investors who opt for longer-term value creation.
The real litmus test is yet to come. An offer will run from February 14 to mid-March in which Euronav’s minority shareholders can sell their stake to the Saverys family at $17.86 per share. The shipping family must make such a buyout proposal after it raised its stake in Euronav above 30 percent in the autumn of last year. Only then will it become clear what they prefer: increasing their bank account or staying on board as a shareholder.
