Good time to invest in product tankers says Wilbur Ross

Wilbur Ross, Jr.

DECEMBER 12, 2013 — Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross thinks that this is a good time to invest in clean product tankers. Among the hats he wears is that of Chairman of Diamond S Shipping Group, which announced today that it had acquired three modern medium-range clean product tankers from funds managed by CarVal Investors, the global investment fund manager founded by Cargill, Inc. in 1987.

In the transaction, a group of funds managed by CarVal became a significant investor in the Diamond S clean product tanker business, and Ranjit Ahluwalia, managing director of CarVal, joined the Diamond S Board of Directors.

“With refined product exports from the U.S. ramping up as a result of the shale revolution in North America and ever-increasing globalization, we think that this is a good time to invest in clean product tankers,” said Mr. Ross, Jr. “With this transaction, we’ve expanded our clean product fleet to 33, one of the largest in the world, and added CarVal to our roster of world-class investors.” Ross said.

In addition to its 33 medium range products tankers, Diamond S Shipping Group owns eight newly built Suezmaxes and two LR2s.

Diamond S investors include WL Ross & Co., First Reserve Corporation, China Investment Corporation, Fairfax Financial Holdings, Morgan Creek Capital Management, PPM Americas Capital Partners and CarVal Investors.