New York-listed Eagle Bulk Shipping has struck again in its fleet modernisation push, striking a deal with Wilbur Ross-founded Nautical Bulk Holdings.
Gary Vogel-led Eagle Bulk has snapped up a pair of six-year-old, scrubber-fitted ultramaxes, according to dry trade sources.
The shipowner has now bought six bulkers from Nautical, having laid out about $84m in March 2019 for four ultramaxes built in 2015 and 2016.
Eagle Bulk management declined to comment on the buys on Thursday even as rumours of the deal were running through broker circles.
The company is acquiring the 63,500-dwt sisterships Nautical Hilary and Nautical Loredana (both built 2015) for about $22m each, the sources said. VesselsValue puts a price tag of about $47.2m on the pair.
The Stamford-based shipowner has now acquired nine bulkers in the past six months, pushing its fleet to 54. About 90% of the units will be equipped with exhaust gas scrubbers once Eagle takes delivery of the latest buys.
These are, however, Eagle's first acquisitions since February. Vogel was asked on the company's recent quarterly earnings call whether the owner had taken a pause from buying more vessels.
"So we are looking as we always do, we're looking at further acquisitions," Vogel told Clarksons Platou Securities analyst Omar Nokta.
"We feel comfortable where we are with our 52 ships. We only have three ships remaining that are over 15 years old. Ultimately, those are sales candidates as the other older ships have been."
The last deal done for an ultramax of similar vintage may have been Danish owner Celsius Shipping's sale of the 63,000-dwt GH Seabird (built 2016) for $21.5m earlier this month. The vessel is not listed as scrubber equipped.
Nautical was formed in 2013 as a partnership between WL Ross & Co, Solus, Fearnley Advisors and Conti Shipping of Germany. Ross, the legendary "King of Bankruptcy", was still in a key role at WL Ross at the time.
Ross later stepped away from many of his investments after he was named US commerce secretary in the administration of former US President Donald Trump.
TradeWinds previously reported that the newbuildings cost $24.9m each. Unlike other shipowners, Nautical did not seek to tap the Norwegian bond or equity markets for a capital raise.
The twin sales to Eagle leave Nautical with a fleet of six, all ultramaxes.
