Castor Maritime has spent just over $40m to acquire panamax bulkers as its relentless spending spree in the secondhand market shows little sign of slowing down.
The Petros Panagiotidis-led company said it paid $19.06m for a bulker built in Japan in 2013, and it paid $21m for a vessel built in South Korea in 2014.
The identities of the sellers and vessels were not disclosed.
The acquisitions are expected to be delivered within the third and fourth quarters of this year subject to the satisfaction of certain customary closing conditions.
The older of the two vessels comes with a time-charter contract attached at a charter rate of $11,650 per day, with a remaining term of about two to four months.
The Baltic Panamax Index (BPI) time-charter average is currently around the $26,500-per-day mark, according to shipbrokers.
Castor Maritime said the deal for the second vessel contains a final purchase price adjustment mechanism, which could see the price trimmed by $10,500 per day for every day the delivery of the vessel is delayed beyond 20 July 2021.
The latest two acquisitions lift Castor Maritime's fleet to 26 vessels with an aggregate capacity of 2.2m dwt across the dry bulk and tanker segments. The fleet now comprises 10 panamaxes, seven kamsarmaxes, a single capesize, five LR2 tankers, a single aframax crude tanker and two MR tankers.
Castor Maritime recently raised another $18m to fund future purchases. The loan matures over four years and bears interest at Libor plus 3.2%.
Castor Maritime has previously raised most of its funds through stock issues, including a $125m sale of securities to unnamed institutional investors early in April.
The Nasdaq-listed company, which has now spent $340m on 23 ships since July, said the senior term loan was secured by two of its tankers.
Some 128 panamax bulkers have reportedly been sold in the secondhand market in the year to date, according to Greek shipbroker Allied Shipbroking.
This has been the most active segment in the dry bulk space this year, with more than $2bn spent on those 128 transactions out of a total of 346 bulkers sold so far this year in deals worth $4.7bn.
