Torben Janholt’s Pioneer Marine is exiting the supramax bulker market after carrying out a very profitable deal for a 10-year-old ship.
The Athens-based shipowner has sold the 56,000-dwt bulker Tenacity Bay (built 2009) to an undisclosed buyer for $8.8m, European and US brokers said.
Pioneer Marine, which is listed on the Oslo over-the-counter market, bought the vessel from Korea Line in September 2016 for just $5.8m
The gain that Pioneer Marine is pocketing shows that even though the values have dropped a bit this year, the company is still fetching more than 50% more than it paid for the ship three years ago.
The price for the Tenacity Bay is very similar to the $8.9m that Peter Doehle just has received for the sistership Tatjana (built 2009).
Pioneer Marine will now be left with a fleet of 17 handysize bulkers with an average age of eight years.
The company has also sold two handysizes this year. In October it confirmed a sale of the Japanese-built, 26,600-dwt Fortune Bay (built 2006). Brokers said the vessel went to a Vietnamese buyer for $6.5m. The company logged a $3.9m profit on this disposal.
In February, Pioneer Marine sold the 46,000-dwt bulker Bay (built 2003) for $9.8m to the CSL Group of Canada for conversion purposes.
The handysize company, which is based in Athens, manages 25 handysize bulkers and is in the process of installing ballast water treatment systems (BWTS) on its own vessels.
Pioneer Marine logged a net profit of $6.7m for the first nine months this year, compared to a $1.8m in the same period last year.
