Eagle Bulk Shipping is circulating two of its oldest ships for sale ahead of special surveys due this year.
The New York-listed shipowner is negotiating sales of the scrubber-fitted 56,000-dwt Crested Eagle and Stellar Eagle (both built 2009), sources in the dry bulk market said this week.
While some broker accounts have the pair sold to undisclosed buyers at $14.5m each, sources familiar with the talks said the reports are premature.
The supramaxes are among the oldest in Eagle’s fleet; the 55,900-dwt Crowned Eagle (built 2008) is the only older vessel among its 52 bulkers. All but a handful of the Eagle ships are equipped with scrubbers.
VesselsValue assigns a worth of $15.2m to the Crested Eagle and indicates that a special survey is due later this month. Stellar Eagle’s listed value is $15.36m, with a special survey due in March.
The sales would be in keeping with Eagle’s practice of selling older tonnage before incurring the expense of special surveys.
The company has a policy of not commenting on market rumours in sale-and-purchase deals. It typically discloses sales in prepared statements or quarterly earnings releases.
It has been an extremely busy two months for the Connecticut owner, which disclosed in December that agreement had been reached with Star Bulk Carriers of Greece for an all-stock takeover valued in the region of $500m.
The parties said then that Star would be the surviving name and management, with Eagle CEO Gary Vogel departing the company and chief financial officer Costa Tsoutsoplides staying on under contract for a six-month transition period.
Star Bulk also has been clearing out older tonnage similar to the Eagle vessels under negotiation.
Eagle also confirmed on Monday that its 63,600-dwt Gibraltar Eagle (built 2015) had been struck by “a projectile” about 100 miles (160 km) south of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden. It caused some damage but there were no crew injuries.
US Centcom said the ultramax had been hit by a missile fired by the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The Gibraltar Eagle was able to escape the region with a cargo of steel loaded in South Korea and bound for Turkey. Some initial reports had incorrectly placed the destination as the US.
