Just as it doubled its money with the sale of an LR2 tanker, the Vafias clan expanded its dry bulk bet with three acquisitions on the secondhand market.
Brave Maritime — the private dry arm of the Greek family’s shipping group — swooped on a pair of capesizes sold by Goodbulk.
The first of these ships is the 182,100-dwt Aquavictory (built 2010), which changed hands in the first half of March for $26.5m, according to market sources in Athens.
The Aquavictory formed part of a rare series of six capesize sister ships built at Denmark’s Odense Steel Shipyard. Their huge price tag of $110m each likely makes them the most expensive capesizes ever constructed.
Hot on the heels of the Aquavictory deal, another followed between the same parties late in March for the South Korean-built, 178,900-dwt Aquaexplorer (built 2012), priced at $28.5m.
Goodbulk chief executive John Michael Radziwill confirmed the two sales but did not disclose their price or buyer.
TradeWinds understands that his company will deliver both ships to Brave Maritime in May.
GoodBulk has sold a string of vessels in recent months to unlock cash and maintain its dividend capacity.
More often than not, it was private Vafias interests who stood on the other side of the deal.
The Greek family has been one of the earliest capesize buyers in the ongoing shipping cycle, pouncing on tonnage when market prospects still looked bleak amid doubts about the strength of China’s post-Covid recovery.
In the final quarter of last year, the Vafias clan bought four capesizes, including two from Goodbulk. They were the 181,500-dwt Lowlands Sunrise (renamed Cape XL, built 2011), 181,700-dwt Aquitaine (renamed Cape Horn, built 2010), 175,000-dwt Aquafortune (renamed Cape Aria, built 2011) and 179,300-dwt HL Shinboryeong (renamed Cape Good Hope, built 2010).
Bold player
The bet on these ships seems to be bearing fruit. As the Chinese economy gradually recovers, bulker markets and capesize steel values have been on the rise this year.
It remains to be seen whether the Vafias group will continue investing in big bulkers. According to market sources in Athens, its latest acquisitions bring Vafias’ capesize fleet near the 10-ship mark considered by many as something of a limit to its exposure to this particular vessel class.
The group does not shy away from buying smaller bulkers. In another acquisition last week, Brave Maritime spent $18.75m on the 55,600-dwt Super Odegaard (built 2011).
According to market sources, this is the first supramax that Brave Maritime has purchased since 2009.
The three acquisitions bring the Greek company’s expansion over the past 18 to 24 months to nearly 30 ships. As TradeWinds has reported, the private group’s expansion has spanned secondhand bulkers and tankers, as well as gas carrier newbuildings.
In traditional Greek fashion, Brave Maritime has funded some of that growth through countercyclical asset plays.
Its latest such move concerns the 112,800-dwt LR2 tanker Gstaad Grace (renamed Sivas, built 2010), which the Greek company sold last month to interests based in the Middle East for an eye-watering $45m.
This is exactly twice the amount the Greek family spent to buy the same vessel five years ago, when administrators sold off the ship — which was trading as United Grace at the time — in the wind-down of the bankrupt Kallimanopoulos fleet.
Holly Birkett contributed to this article
