The Constantakopoulos family has emerged as the buyer of a pair of kamsarmaxes sold earlier this week by Greek peer Safe Bulkers.
US-listed Safe Bulkers announced the $44.5m deal for the two ships on 12 May. It identified neither the buyer nor the ships.
The description of the vessels as 10-year-old Chinese-built kamsarmaxes matched only three vessels in the company’s fleet: the 81,600-dwt Pedhoulas Builder, Pedhoulas Fighter and Pedhoulas Farmer (all built 2012).
Several brokers in Athens and London subsequently identified the vessels sold as the Pedhoulas Builder and the Pedhoulas Farmer, and US-listed Costamare as the buyer.
However, that information is misleading as it is not dedicated containership owner Costamare that bought the ships. Rather, members of the Constantakopoulos family, which founded the listed company, purchased the ships in a private deal that has nothing to do with Costamare.
The Constantakopoulos family is known to occasionally pursue shipping opportunities outside the scope of Costamare, in which it owns a majority stake.
Family members were not available for comment. However, according to shipping circles in Piraeus, the Pedhoulas Builder and Pedhoulas Farmer are not the only bulkers they invested in recently.
The clan is believed to have bought five bulkers in total. Another one among them could be the 83,500-dwt Spring Aeolian (built 2012), which its previous Japanese owners are said to have disposed of for $21.9m.
The acquisitions are characteristic of continued bullishness in the bulker arena among Greek buyers, even those who began investing early in the cycle and would be normally expected to offload vessels to reap the gains, now that prices have increased.
