Aegis Logistics is paying $809m for an 89.8% stake in Dubai-based Tristar, a deal that values the tanker, bulk and road logistics group at $1.5bn on an enterprise basis and hands India's largest private LPG storage player its first sizeable international shipping operation.

The Mumbai-listed group is buying the stake through Singapore-based Aegis Logistics International from shareholders including Kuwait's Agility, Gulf Investment Corporation and Diamond Holdings. The transaction still needs competition and other regulatory approvals, and both sides target a close by the end of March 2027 — a two-year runway that suggests no one assumes a fast sign-off.

On an equity basis, Tristar is valued at $882m, or roughly six times its 2025 EBITDA. That multiple looks restrained for a company that generated about $1.4bn in revenue and $257m of EBITDA last year, operating across more than 30 countries. But roughly two-thirds of the purchase price sits against a fleet whose earnings depend heavily on long-term contracts with energy majors — and the disclosure does not spell out how much of the $257m is annuity-like versus spot exposure.

What does Aegis actually get?

The core of the deal is a fleet of 26 ocean-going and coastal vessels at end-2025, per Agility's figures, alongside more than 1,000 trucks, 14 fuel farms and over 60 remote fuel sites. Tristar's Eships arm owns and operates a mixed fleet of chemical, oil and gas tankers and bulk carriers trading globally, with much of the tonnage fixed to major energy companies on long-term contracts.

Shell Tankers remains the company's largest maritime customer.

That contract backbone matters. Aegis's existing business is centred on LPG and bulk-liquid storage, distribution and terminal infrastructure in India. Buying Tristar moves the group from domestic infrastructure into global shipowning in one step — a different risk profile, even with charter cover, and one Aegis has no prior track record operating at this scale.

How did Tristar build the fleet?

The company's transformation from road haulier to shipowner took the better part of two decades. Eugene Mayne founded Tristar in the UAE in 1998 with three trucks. Agility bought into the business in 2003 for around $7m, and by 2004 Tristar was still essentially a domestic road transport operator generating about $13.5m in revenue.

Shipping followed in stages. Agility dates Tristar's entry into maritime logistics to 2004, but the decisive shipowning move came more than a decade later:

• In 2016, Tristar paid $90m for Abu Dhabi-based Emirates Ship Investment Company, or Eships, from Germany's Oldendorff Group, adding seven ocean-going chemical tankers, including two LPG carriers, plus an established maritime management operation.
• At the same time, Tristar took delivery of six new 50,000 dwt MR product tankers from Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in South Korea under a programme worth about $200m.
• The Eships purchase, the MR newbuildings and Tristar's existing coastal fleet pushed its owned shipping operation above 20 vessels.
• By early 2017, after consolidating the Tristar and Eships shipping teams in Dubai, the company counted 22 ships and described shipowning as core to the business.

What about fleet growth?

The fleet is not standing still. Tristar disclosed last year that it agreed to build and operate four MR product tankers under Project Griffin, with the first scheduled to enter service in 2028. The ships are expected to add between 32 and 52 years of combined contract coverage — a wide range that implies charter terms are not yet fully locked, worth watching for shippers counting on that capacity.

Who cashes out, and how?

Agility, which owns 65.12% of Tristar, expects to receive up to $581m from selling its holding. The payment structure staggers the exposure: $425m at closing, $110m one year later, and an earn-out of up to $46m. In other words, nearly $156m of Agility's return — more than a quarter — depends on Tristar performing after the handover.

For Aegis, the acquisition is a sizeable international expansion and a bet that energy logistics contracts in the Gulf and beyond will hold their value through the regulatory review period and beyond. With the first Project Griffin tanker due in 2028 and regulatory approval targeted by March 2027, the real test of the $1.5bn valuation will come only after Aegis takes the wheel.