US-listed Navios Maritime Holdings has agreed to sell its only handysize vessel amid rising bulker values that also encouraged a smaller Greek peer to make its first ship sale.
Brokers in Athens and the US reported that Navios has sold its 34,700-dwt Navios Serenity (built 2011) to Greek interests for about $10.5m.
Managers at the Angeliki Frangou-led company did not respond to a request for comment.
The Navios Serenity has always been something of an aberration in Navios’ fully-owned bulker fleet of about 30 ships.
It became the company’s smallest vessel by far when Navios acquired it opportunistically in 2012 for $26m from troubled Greek peer NewLead Holdings. It was already managing the ship on long-term charter at the time.
Navios has been a very busy player in the secondhand market. Since the autumn of 2019, the Frangou outfit acquired eight vessels and sold 10. Two of the ships it sold went to affiliated vehicle Navios Maritime Partners.
Its latest sale seems particularly well timed. Built at South Korea’s SPP Shipbuilding, the Navios Symmetry has its special survey due in the summer, at which time owners must also install a ballast water treatment system.
Furthermore, asset prices have been rising across the board in the dry bulk market on the back of intense buying interest.
Similar considerations probably led Diligent, a smaller, privately-held Greek company, to make the first sale in its relatively young history.
The Athens-based outfit has sold the 28,500-dwt Nordic Bulker 2 (built 2002) to Middle East interests for $5.8m, Greek brokers said. Diligent managers did not respond to a request for comment.
Built at Imabari Shipbuilding, the Nordic Bulker 2 was the first vessel Diligent acquired in 2011, when members of the Kefalas family established the company in Athens.
The Nordic Bulker 2 has remained the only ship managed by Diligent until 2016, when the dry bulk market bottomed out and Diligent started buying vessels with gusto. It has added five handysizes and nine supramaxes.
Another Greek company that may be preparing to offload a ship in the rising handysize market is Newport.
The George Chatzis-led outfit has circulated for sale the Japanese-built, 28,400-dwt Tramontana (built 2010).
Newport purchased the vessel in September 2017 from Japanese buyers for about $8.2m. The company could now expect to sell the ship for about $9.4m, according to VesselsValue.
