A new $25m equity raise by Eagle Bulk Shipping suggests the Connecticut owner to be the buyer of a second Scorpio Bulkers ultramax within the past week.
Gary Vogel-led Eagle is turning to investors for a shares sale led by DNB Markets and Fearnley Securities that would appear to supply the equity portion for the two recent Scorpio purchases and perhaps other buys to come.
It is Eagle Bulk's first raise of common equity in nearly four years. The overnight deal is expected to reveal pricing in New York on Friday morning.
As TradeWinds has previously reported, Eagle Bulk was the buyer on the Scorpio ultramax SBI Gemini (built 2015) in a $16m deal disclosed 30 November.
It now emerges that Scorpio's sale of the 63,600-dwt SBI Aries (built 2015) for $16.5m this week also was to Eagle Bulk. Scorpio had disclosed the sale without identifying the buyer.
Eagle Bulk is turning to public investors in hopes of raising $25m to support the purchases and perhaps others.
However, it has a side deal in place with an existing shareholder to buy whatever general investors will not. The unidentified holder has agreed to a purchase price of $18.10.
TradeWinds understands the shareholder is GoldenTree Asset Management, Eagle's second-largest investor.
Eagle Bulk shares closed on Wednesday at $19.11. They gained 2.5% to $19.59 on Thursday prior to the equity raise being announced. Eagle fell 7% in after-market trading to $18.25 on news of the raise.
Supramax boost
The trading levels are some of the highest in the past 30 days amid better rates in the supramax market.
But perhaps more importantly, they come at levels about even with most estimates of Eagle Bulk's net asset value. For examples, Cleaves Securities recently calculated it at $18.30 per share.
Stamford-based Eagle also disclosed it had sold the oldest ship in its fleet — the 50,296-dwt supramax Hawk I (built 2001) on 24 November for $4.5m before commissions and expenses, with delivery to come this quarter.
Since August, Eagle has sold five older ships ahead of their dry-docking dates as it continues a gradual fleet renewal.
In the past five years it has sold 19 ships and acquired 22.
Eagle has plenty of experience with both banks on the deal.
Fearnley Securities led two private placements for the New York-listed owner in 2016 that raised a total of $190m.
DNB is part of Eagle's lending group, and also led a $200m Norwegian bond deal in 2017.
