United Maritime confirmed that it is adding three bulkers to its growing fleet after TradeWinds reported the deal earlier this month.
The US-listed shipowner said in a statement that it struck $63m worth of deals to acquire two kamsarmaxes and a panamax.
United Maritime, which is the spin-off of Athens-based Seanergy Maritime — did not identify the vessels by name.
Their description, however, is identical with the three ships that TradeWinds reported on 7 February that the company was buying. They are the 82,200-dwt Liberty K (built 2010), the 81,500-dwt Hampton Bay (built 2009) and the 78,200-dwt Oceanic Power (built 2013).
Of those, just the Liberty K and Hampton Bay are outright purchases for the moment. United Maritime said on 16 February it will spend $39.2m on the pair through a combination of cash on hand and proceeds from new credit facilities still under negotiation.
With delivery slated by the end of April, the Liberty K will trade as the Oasea and the Hampton Bay will then be renamed Cretansea.
The deal for the third ship, the Oceanic Power, is structured differently. Upon its delivery later this month, the Japanese-built vessel will enter an 18-month bareboat charter with United Maritime at $7,300 per day.
Stamatis Tsantanis-led United Maritime will pay the ship's owners $7m by then and has an option to purchase it at the end of its bareboat charter for a further $12.36m.
Its latest acquisitions bring United Maritime’s fleet to seven ships — three capesizes, two kamsarmaxes, one panamax and one LR2 tanker.
The company was more heavily skewed towards tankers last year, when it bought a quartet of LR2s and aframaxes.
Just a few months later, however, it flipped three of them at a fat profit, much of which it promptly returned to shareholders.
Since that successful asset play, United Maritime switched its focus to bulkers, spending more than $98m on five such vessels.
“We strongly believe that it is the right time to invest in the particular sector,” Tsantanis said on Thursday.
He is chief executive of both United Maritime and Seanergy.
“The attractive values of the acquired ships is intended to place United in a position to generate high returns with moderate leverage from an investment funded without diluting our shareholders,” he said.
“Notwithstanding the seasonal softening of the dry bulk market, the outlook remains strong, supported by all-time low orderbook and the gradually improving global economy,”
