Greek owner Michael Bodouroglou has started expanding in bulkers again, in a clear sign of how a recent freight-rate recovery has encouraged owners who have been laying low for years to invest in the sector again.
Market sources in Athens identify Allseas Marine — Bodouroglou’s private company — as the buyer of the 57,000-dwt supramaxes Ithomi and Parnon (both built 2011).
The pair was sold by Greece’s Delta International in an en bloc deal for about $15.5m. The price is below the $17.4m that VesselsValue estimates the Qingshan Shipyard-built vessels are currently worth.
This is a remarkable comeback for Bodouroglou, whose last bulker purchase took place five years ago, when Allseas bought a ship quartet from the same owner's US-listed arm Paragon Shipping, which was winding down.
The purchase of the Ithomi and Parnon brings Allseas’ managed bulker fleet to nine vessels, consisting of four supramaxes, three ultramaxes and two kamsarmaxes.
Allseas also manages four containerships, as well as two suezmaxes that Bodouroglou purchased in 2018.
Sources familiar with the company’s thinking believe the Greek owner will consider further bulker purchases, but selectively, slowly and conservatively.
Greeks have lion's share
The latest deal is in line with wider recent market trends.
Greeks have been the biggest single players in the sale-and-purchase market for bulkers, accounting for 31% of all confirmed acquisitions so far this year, according to Athens-based brokers Intermodal. Two thirds of all transactions occurred between May and July.
“Greek buyers were involved in acquisitions across all vessel sizes and ages,” Intermodal said. “They displayed an aggressive appetite for modern handysize and supramax vessels and a more moderate desire for similar vintage tonnage.”
At the same time, there is still plenty of potential Greek buying interest out there, as some players wait for any recovery to become more sustainable before investing in the sector.
“A lot of people are waiting in the wings,” one Piraeus-based broker said.
A string of bulkers have been reported sold to unidentified Hellenic buyers over the last couple of weeks.
These include the Japanese-controlled, 58,100-dwt supramax Santa Katarina (built 2010) for between $10.5m and $10.7m; the 181,500-dwt capesize Pacific Endurance (built 2011) for $18m; and the 31,800-dwt handysize Ikan Jenahar (built 2010) for about $8m.
Greek owners are also said to have spent about $13.8m each to buy the 82,000-dwt kamsarmaxes Wise Young and Sunny Young (both built 2011). The Sunny Young was once again reported sold in January, to Athens-based Blue Seas for about $15.5m. However, that deal failed to materialise.
In another reported sale of a Japanese-controlled supramax to Greek interests, the 56,100-dwt Noble Halo (built 2008) is believed to have fetched close to $8m. Some brokers even say buyers waived inspection of the Mitsui-built ship.
Too little, too late
However, for some Greek owners, the revival of the dry bulk market has come too late, or was too weak, to help them cope with the doldrums in the market before.
Delta, which set up shop in 2003 when interests of the Diamantis family split from Mantinia Shipping, has been left without any ships following the sale of the Ithomi and Parnon to Bodouroglou.
Some brokers reported the sale of the supramax pair as bank-driven, even though TradeWinds understands they were sold by Delta itself. They have been trading with the company since being delivered by Qingshan Shipyard.
According to market sources, the Chinese yard was charging about $32m for this type of vessel at the time they were ordered.
In February, Delta put up the sistership Menalon for sale. By April, that vessel appeared under a new name, Cordelia B, in the fleet of Interunity Management Maritime — a company known to be operating ships on behalf of lenders.
Managers at Delta did not respond to a request for comment.
