Turkish shipping company Atlantis Tankers bought two small-sized chemical tankers Ionian Trader and Lydian Trader from Greek-based Enterprises Shipping and Trading on Dec. 23, 2016.

Ionian Trader was acquired for US$7.19m and Lydian Trader for US$7.1m, according to VesselsValue's data.

The delivery of the vessels is expected to take place in the next 45 days and the tankers will be renamed to Atlantis Arki and Atlantis Araceli.

The pair will be taken under the technical and crewing management of Armona Denizcilik, and will be commercially managed by Atlantis Tankers.

The 5,500dwt tankers were built by Turkish KGS in 2008, a joint venture (JV) between Ares Tankers and Galatasaray Holding at Celik Tekne Shipyard. The JV intended to sell all of six sister ships to another 50-50 JV between Norwegian ship owner Mowinckels Rederi and Turkish ship manager Ares.

"After delivering the first four vessels: Lycian, Ionian, Lydian and Hada, Mowinckels' appetite for the remaining two became obsolete due to the Lehmann-crisis. Thus the fifth and sixth ship remained with KGS and are managed by Ares Tankers Management as RC Behar and Hitra," said Atlantis Tankers.

The four joint venture ships were financed by a consortium of Nordea and Deutsche Bank. However, the JV ran into financial problems which brought the Norwegian/Turkish partnership to separate, leaving the ships with Mowinckels. The lenders sought new buyers and sold all four vessels in 2012.

The first tanker duo was sold to Borealis Maritime, while the other two vessels, Lydian and Ionian, were sold to Restis' company: Enterprises Shipping and Trading.