Genco Shipping & Trading plans to offload 10 handysizes as part of its fleet renewal plan but is not looking to sell them right away.

The New York-listed bulker owner's board decided to sell them before year's end after considering such a move since 2017, chief executive John Wobensmith said.

"You need to just take a step back when you look at these 10 ships," he said during Wednesday morning's fourth-quarter earnings call with analysts.

"We're not necessarily looking to sell these next week, so just to be very clear on that. This is an opportunistic approach to make sure we’re getting the best value."

Given the coronavirus overhang, it is "probably not the ideal time to be selling ships" anyway, he said.

"I suspect it to be this year, to be very clear. but then we'll look for firmer to prices."

Genco announced its intent to sell the 10 handysizes late Tuesday in its fourth-quarter earnings report, as part of its original plan to sell 15 vessels to lower the fleet's age profile.

Wobensmith referred to the 10 ships as "eight sisters" in the 34,000-dwt range and two in the 32,000-dwt range.

The eight "34s" are 34,432-dwt Genco Spirit and 34,428-dwt Marie (both built 2011); 34,409-dwt Genco Ocean (built 2010); 34,409-dwt Baltic Wind (built 2009); 34,403-dwt Baltic Cove (built 2010); 34,391-dwt Genco Avra (built 2011); 34,386-dwt Baltic Breeze (built 2010); and 34,296-dwt Genco Bay (built 2010).

The two "32s" are 31,887-dwt Baltic Hare (built 2009) and 31,883-dwt Baltic Fox (built 2010).

En bloc or one at a time

Wobensmith said Genco is open to offloading these ships, which are backed by a $460m credit facility, all at once but is also looking at individual sales.

"I think this an opportunity to do an en bloc sale somewhere down the road, but I'm being a little cagey because this isn't a situation where there’s an immediate need see to sell vessels.

"The idea is to maximise proceeds for the company."

The 10 handysizes have a total market value of about $87m.

Genco, which has $162m in cash, reported a $880,000 profit for the fourth quarter, down from an $18.3m profit during the same period last year. Revenue also fell to $109m from $112m.

Earnings per share came in $0.02, missing analyst consensus by $0.06.