Costamare unveiled a transformational deal on Monday that sees the containership company expand into bulkers with a wave of secondhand acquisitions.
The US-listed outfit said in a statement after the market closed in New York that it purchased 16 bulkers, which range in size between 33,000 dwt and 85,000 dwt and have an average age of 10 years.
“We have decided to invest in a liquid sector with strong fundamentals that provides enhanced return opportunities for our shareholders,” Costamare chief financial officer Gregory Zikos said, without identifying the acquired vessels.
To help manage the ships, Costamare said it has hired several senior dry bulk managers from Onassis company Olympic Shipping & Management, who will join its ranks next month.
Costamare's new appointments do not end there.
According to market sources in Athens, the company has also hired John Platsidakis, a former top executive at the Angelicoussis Shipping Group. Platsidakis will help oversee Costamare’s enlarged operations alongside company owner and chief executive Costis Constantakopoulos.
Nick Pentheroudakis, honorary president of the Hellenic Shipbrokers' Association, will also take a prominent position within the company.
Update to follow soon
Costamare has already taken delivery of two of its new bulkers and the rest is set to follow by January 2022.
Costamare has been a pure-play containership company since the early 1990s, including the last 11 years in which it has been listed in New York. Its current fleet consists of more than 80 boxships.
An update of its new business strategy will be provided during second-quarter results, the company said in Monday's statement.
Costamare presented its first-quarter results on 1 June. Thanks to a red-hot containership market, it announced its highest quarterly profit as a listed company and hiked its dividend by 15%.
Management gave no indication of intentions to expand into bulkers at the time. However, the Constantakopoulos family, which controls the company, has been known to be investing in bulkers over the last couple of months.
TradeWinds understands that Costamare bought its bulkers from the Constantakopoulos family at exactly the same price at which the latter acquired them from their previous owners.
As TradeWinds already reported, some of the ships that the Constantakopoulos family bought, and which are now passing to Costamare, include vessels from at least three sources: a trio of supramaxes from Olympic, which has been winding down its presence in the dry bulk market; a kamsarmax pair from Polys Hajioannou-led Safe Bulkers; and one kamsarmax from Japan’s Shunzan Kaiun.
Brokers recently linked Costamare to another two bulkers — the 63,400-dwt Seabird (built 2016), which Celsius Shipping confirmed selling for about $21.5m without identifying its buyers; and the Chinese-controlled, 79,700-dwt Xin Feng (built 2010), which is said to have changed hands for $16.5m.
The identity of the other eight bulkers Costamare bought remains unknown.
As for the vessels’ funding, Costamare said in its statement that it will initially come from cash in hand. However, the company said it is already in talks with commercial lenders to bankroll up to 60% of the acquisition value.
All bulkers that Costamare acquired operate in the spot market and are expected to stay there or on short to medium-term period charters.
The former Onassis managers apart, Costamare will operate them through its existing shipmanagement platform with V.Ships Greece.
