US-listed companies controlled by Angeliki Frangou are to sell a pair of panamax containerships bequeathed to them by privately held vehicles that the major Greek owner dissolved earlier this year.
The deals, reported by Greek brokers, highlight how surging containership earnings have encouraged dealmaking — especially as secondhand ship values appear not to have appreciated at a comparable pace to freight rates.
They could also presage further deals by public Frangou companies Navios Maritime Acquisition and Navios Maritime Partners, which together have a dozen legacy containerships slated for sale.
The ships reported sold are the 3,200-teu Allegro N (built 2014) and 3,100-teu Castor N (built 2007).
Navios Acquisition is believed to have divested the Allegro N to undisclosed buyers for $13.5m. Navios Partners reportedly sold the Castor N for $9m. Market sources identified serial acquirer Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) as the buyer behind the Castor N deal.
A spokeswoman at the Navios group of companies did not respond to a request for comment.
The two companies have been holding on to their containerships — 12 sub-panamaxes and panamaxes built between 2006 and 2014 — as potential sale candidates for months. All it took to start offloading them, it seems, was a red-hot freight rate market.
Improving sales climate
Navios Partners agreed to sell the 2,000-teu Esperanza N (built 2008) in early November for $4.6m. Conditions for a sale improved further since then. In the week to 4 December, Clarksons' average containership earnings climbed to a 12-year high of $19,164 per day.
The Esperanza N, Castor N and Allegro N had been among 12 containerships previously with Navios Europe I and Navios Europe II — two special purpose vehicles jointly set up in 2013 and 2015 by Navios Acquisition, Navios Partners and Navios Maritime Holdings. Frangou dissolved the vehicles earlier this year.
Navios Partners, primarily a bulker company, took over five vessels from Navios Europe. Tanker operator Navios Acquisition took over the remaining seven ships from Navios Europe II.
Frangou's main containership interests are bundled in Navios Maritime Containers, a pure-play boxship outfit that is listed in New York.
The 29 vessels in the Navios Containers fleet are much bigger than the ones held by Navios Partners and Navios Acquisition. Eight of them have secured employment for periods ending between November 2021 and August 2026.
The booming market benefits Navios Containers. Israeli liner operator Zim earlier this week fixed one of the company's ships, the 4,250-teu Navios Amarillo (built 2007), for two years at $22,000 per day. The vessel was earning a paltry $6,610 per day, according to company data.
Considerable earnings potential
Navios Containers' earnings potential looks considerable, considering that about half the company's fleet is on time charters that expire between November 2020 and January 2021.
It is, therefore, no surprise that Frangou does not seem inclined to part with any of those high-value vessels soon. Last month, she unveiled plans to bring Navios Containers into the fold of Navios Partners via a share buyout.
