John Michael Radziwill’s GoodBulk has completed a profitable asset play with the sale of its only supramax bulker and surprised the market with a bumper second-quarter dividend.
Goodbulk, which is listed on Oslo’s over-the-counter (OTC) market, revealed the transaction and the increased payout as it continued a profitable start to a difficult year for the dry bulk market.
Goodbulk told investors today it had sold the 55,000-dwt Aquakula (built 2007) for $12.1m, booking a gain of $3.8m on the vessel.
The ship was the second purchased by GoodBulk during a prolific 2017 as Radziwill built up the fleet before tapping the capital markets in Oslo.
It paid $9.8m for the vessel, then known as the Admiral Schmidt. However, GoodBulk has increasingly focused on the capesize sector, with notable transactions signed with CarVal and JP Morgan since it went public.
Dividend 'surprise'
GoodBulk, which today has 25 capesizes and a single panamax in its fleet, booked a profit of $228,000 in the second quarter.
This took its running profit for the first six months of 2019 to $2.8m, a period in which many peers have been in the red.
It paid a dividend of $0.42 per share for the second quarter, which Joakim Hannisdahl of Cleaves described as “a very positive surprise”.
He said the sale of the Aquakula had provided the cash to pay the “the extraordinary high dividend”.
“GoodBulk has now paid $44m in dividends over the past year,” he added.
The shipowner had been a US IPO candidate but backed out of a float and is presently content to stick on the OTC market.
Let's party like it's 2009
Radziwill told TradeWinds in June the public market valuations and GoodBulk’s fully delivered fleet on the water mean he is content with the company’s present position for now.
“A long time ago, the grandson of a very prominent businessman told me his grandfather told him you always have to make your partners money before yourself, and that is the key to success,” Radziwill said at the time.
“That is what we have been doing at CTM, GoodBulk is a good example of that, and the fact we continue to do that puts a real smile on my face.”
Dry cargo rates have shot up this summer, with CTM noting on Instagram this week that the Baltic Capesize Index had experienced its best July since 2009.
“Although the very near term outlook is negative, it is important to remember that we are currently around five-year highs, which has come as a very pleasant shift comparative to the market sentiment just a few months back,” Hannisdahl said.
