International Seaways has agreed a $370m all-share takeover of Oslo-listed VLCC owner Bruton, securing agreements with shareholders holding 50.5% of the company including Tor Olav Trøim's Drew Holdings and Koch Inc. The deal, announced Friday, goes well beyond the two-newbuilding purchase the market had been pricing last week. It takes the entire four-ship fleet.

What does the deal look like in structure?

Shareholders in the 50.5% bloc will exchange their holdings into newly issued International Seaways paper at a ratio of 0.0519 INSW shares per Bruton share. The initial tranche settles around October 20. A follow-on merger mops up the rest, with Seaways issuing roughly 3.12m new shares — 96% of total consideration. Smaller Bruton holders get cash at $6.3044 per share.

Bruton's board has unanimously recommended the transaction. A shareholder vote is expected around October 30, completion is targeted for early November, and Bruton will then delist from Euronext Growth Oslo.

What tonnage is Seaways actually buying?

Four 300,000 dwt VLCCs, all built or building at China's New Times Shipbuilding:

• Mount Vision — LNG dual-fuel, delivered and in service since July
• Mount Horizon — LNG dual-fuel sistership, delivery due next month
• Mount Frontier — due August 2027
• Mount Summit — due October 2027

The first two come with earnings attached, which is the commercial core of this deal. Mount Vision is fixed on a 3+1+1-year deal with a trading house at $95,000 per day for the first nine months, then index-linked. Mount Horizon is fixed for 12 to 15 months at $105,700 per day. The two 2027 ships remain unchartered and were the focus of the sale speculation Splash reported last week, after Bruton confirmed market rumours and launched a strategic review.

The price gap tells its own story. Brokers had been talking values north of $200m per vessel for the modern tonnage. Bruton's own figures put the original yard cost of the two 2027 ships at about $117m apiece. Note the $370m headline is Bruton's equity value, not the gross vessel value.

Why Bruton ended up on the block

The sale follows Trøim's restructuring of his tanker interests. Bruton originally ran a 12-ship VLCC newbuilding programme before splitting in August, keeping its first four New Times ships and moving eight further newbuildings into separately listed OMC Tankers. Those eight are not part of the Seaways transaction.

The demerger left Bruton as a concentrated play: near-term deliveries, heavy charter cover, and Chinese lessor financing covering 85% to 90% of construction costs. Clean package, easy to buy.

What it means for Seaways

For Lois Zabrocky's New York-listed group, the deal extends an aggressive renewal cycle. The company held roughly 70 vessels including newbuildings before the deal. It sold seven older tankers, among them two VLCCs, for more than $216m earlier this year, and has backed LR1 newbuildings at South Korea's K Shipbuilding. In January it took full ownership of crude trading platform Tankers International, which has since pushed into the suezmax segment.

The timing is strong. Alongside the takeover, Seaways flagged preliminary third-quarter net income of $340m to $350m, including a roughly $50m gain on a suezmax sale, with liquidity of approximately $965m at end-September. The balance sheet can carry this without strain.

There is a Norwegian subplot, too. Family trusts established by John Fredriksen — Trøim's business partner for nearly two decades until the pair split in 2014 — hold a 13.54% stake in International Seaways, per the latest US regulatory filing. The deal reunites, at arm's length, interests tied to two names that once ran Frontline together.

For VLCC owners watching from the sidelines, the message is that modern dual-fuel tonnage with employment attached now commands equity premiums well above historical yard economics. With the October 30 vote pending and two Mount ships still open for charter into 2027 delivery slots, further consolidation talk around the remaining Norwegian VLCC platforms looks unlikely to wait long.