UK shipping fund Tufton Oceanic Assets has revealed an "opportunistic" bulker sale worth $16.2m.

The London-listed owner said the price for the handysize acquired in 2018 represents 119% of its depreciated replacement cost, taking the vessel's charter into account.

The unnamed ship was acquired for 74% of its replacement cost.

Tufton bought two handysizes in 2018. It paid $12.9m for the 34,500-dwt Skelt (built 2010) in a deal with Skelt Marine, and it acquired the 34,000-dwt Orient Adventure (built 2011) from Interorient Shipmanagement for $10m.

The latest disposal, together with two bulker acquisitions in September, demonstrate the company's commitment to environment, social and governance (ESG) as well as capital re-allocation, Tufton said.

The remaining six bulkers are all built in Japan with an average age of 9.5 years, are fuel efficient versus their peers and have all been acquired in the past 12 months below replacement cost, the company added.

Higher earners

These vessels earn a net yield about 3% higher than the handysize Tufton has just sold. Tufton said it continues to identify an attractive pipeline of ships to buy.

The September bulk carrier purchases cost $41.2m, but the ships were not named.

Brokers reported that these are the 36,000-dwt New History and New Inspiration, acquired from Taiwan's Hsin Chien Marine for $20.6m each.

Tufton has already bought two handysizes and an ultramax from the Taiwanese player earlier this year.

The handysizes come with fixed-rate time charters for a year, giving an annual net yield of 25%.

They will be dry docked when these deals end, so that energy saving devices can be fitted.