Andreas Povlsen-led Hayfin Capital Management has acquired its fourth capesize bulker this year and its fifth since August 2023.
Market sources and brokers are identifying the UK-based alternative investment platform as the buyer of the 180,000-dwt Nymphe (built 2009) — a vessel currently owned by Greece’s Neda Maritime Agency.
Neda does not comment on commercial transactions.
The two companies have concluded similar business before. In August last year, Neda sold to Hayfin a sister ship to the Nymphe called Ariadne, which has been trading in the fund’s fleet ever since as the GH Nightingale.
The wide price gap between the two identical vessels, built at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, tells everything one needs to know about how heated the capesize market has become.
Whereas the Ariadne changed hands for a little more than $21m 10 months ago, its sister ship Nymphe is believed to be fetching $29.3m now, according to brokers.
Rising prices, however, are not discouraging Hayfin from engaging in a wide-ranging capesize acquisition campaign.
Following the purchase of the Ariadne in August 2023, the UK fund bought three more such vessels in confirmed deals between February and May 2024.
As TradeWinds already reported, these ships are the 181,000-dwt Urja (renamed GH Fitzgerald, built 2013), as well as the 179,200-dwt sister ships Athenian Phoenix (renamed GH Leveche) and Corinthian Phoenix (renamed GH Ostria, both built 2009).
Hayfin declined to comment on the latest reports about it acquiring Neda’s Nymphe as well. In an emailed statement to TradeWinds, however, the firm acknowledged that it “continues to be interested and active in the capesize sector”.
Diversified war chest
Capesizes thus seem to be an integral part of the $1bn maritime investment project that Hayfin launched late last year.
According to broker data and market sources, the UK fund spent about $140m on the five capesizes it has purchased since August last year.
The fund’s shipping project also includes fresh tonnage under construction.
As TradeWinds reported, Hayfin has ordered a quartet of methanol-ready suezmax tankers at HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, as well as a pair of 100,000-dwt post-panamax bulkers at Japan’s Oshima Shipbuilding.
As for Neda, the sales to Hayfin of its sister ship capesizes Ariadne and Nymphe is a natural move in a long-term fleet renewal process.
In the same time frame that it divested the two ships, the Michael Lykiardopulo-led company acquired a pair of five-year-old newcastlemaxes from 2020 Bulkers.
Furthermore, Neda ordered in early 2023 a pair of 82,000-dwt methanol-ready kamsarmaxes at Chengxi Shipyard, which are due for delivery in 2026.
