GoodBulk’s long capesize sale campaign is coming to its conclusion. The company is understood to be in the process of selling its last such ships.
The Monaco-based, Oslo-listed owner still features five capesizes on its website’s fleet list.
But three of them are believed to have been sold in recent weeks, as TradeWinds already reported, and the remaining two are on the way out as well.
Ship management sources in Athens said that GoodBulk principal John Michael Radziwill gave the go-ahead last week to offload the 178,100-dwt Aquaproud (built 2009) for $18.9m.
Greece’s PrimeBulk Shipmanagement is believed to be the buyer of that vessel, which was built at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS) and comes equipped with a ballast water treatment system.
The last GoodBulk ship left after that sale is the 174,100-dwt Aquakatie (built 2007).
According to the sources, that SWS-built vessel is due to change hands too, for about $15.9m — most likely to the Nicholas G Moundreas group of companies.
The Aquakatie transaction had not been finalised at the time of writing, with the deal still being on seller’s subjects.
GoodBulk managers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The owner does not usually comment on transactions reported in the market.
To judge by past experience, however, not much should be standing in the way of a sale. The company has been in frantic disposal mode, divesting 20 capesizes on the secondhand market since April last year.
That includes the 182,100-dwt Aquamarine (built 2009), 179,800-dwt Aquarange and 176,000-dwt Aquaenna (both built 2011), which TradeWinds has reported as sold between 27 June and 11 July. Disposal of these ships has not been officially confirmed on the company’s website yet.
GoodBulk has stuck to its consistent sale strategy, despite falling ship values.
That decline is evident in the case of the 178,100-dwt Bao May (built 2010) — a one-year younger sistership of the Aquaproud, which US-based Foremost Maritime sold in May for $25.5m.
Greek interests, most likely Theodore Veniamis’ Golden Union, were the Bao May’s buyers and the ship is now trading as Michalis JR.
GoodBulk’s consistent sale strategy suggests that it is shedding ships against the background of a plan to transform itself.
In recent statements to TradeWinds, Radziwill hinted that the company could well diversify away from bulkers and into other ship types.
The capesizes that it is leaving behind in this transformation are eagerly picked up by counter-cyclical Greeks, who see this as an opportunity to expand their footprint in the sector.
Adam Polemis’ New Shipping had not bought a single bulker in nearly four years before market sources linked it to the purchase of the Aquamarine.
Costamare did not directly own any capesizes before its apparent purchases of the Aquaenna and Aquarange.
PrimeBulk, the Coronis family outfit now buying the Aquaproud, had not acquired any bulkers in two years.
Greek capesize appetite has not been limited to GoodBulk. As TradeWinds has reported, container ship player Danaos Corp has reached a tentative agreement to acquire a quintet of such vessels, built between 2010 and 2012, from China Development Bank Leasing for $103m.
“Hopefully we are at the bottom [of the market],” one Greek capesize buyer told TradeWinds.
