Maestro Shipping, a Switzerland-based company set up by Jorgen Dannesboe almost 20 years ago, sold its last bulker to the same buyers who also took three others before it.
Market sources identified Devbulk, an Istanbul-based owner of geared handysize tonnage, as the buyer of the modern 39,800-dwt Maestro Emerald (built 2020).
The modern, open-hatch vessel built at Saiki Heavy Industries in Japan changed hands for $30m.
It is expected to start trading with its new owners as the Devbulk Deniz when Devbulk takes delivery in the Atlantic in September.
An older ship trading with Devbulk under the same name, the 30,000-dwt Devbulk Deniz (built 2009), will be renamed Devbulk Imabari.
The deal for the Maestro Emerald completes a process under which Deval brothers Hakki and Orhan acquired all four handysizes previously in the Maestro fleet in a little more than a year for $104m in total.
Dannesboe, who knows the Deval family, will be left without any ships.
Maestro also used to own ro-ros. Its final vessel in that category, the 15,375-gt Maestro Sun (built 1986), was scrapped in Turkey in January.
Devbulk, by contrast, is on an expansion course.
The Turkish company, which manages all its vessels in-house out of a wooden villa by the Bosphorus, plans to expand to 14 ships by the end of the year with the acquisition of another two large handysizes.
To fund its moves, Devbulk has been able to tap new sources of finance.
Last week, the company signed a term-loan agreement with JA Mitsui Leasing for the 38,300-dwt Devbulk Gulten (built 2013) — one of two vessels it bought early this year, as TradeWinds reported.
This is the first deal that the Japanese leasing company has signed in Turkey.
Its conclusion bears testament to the close relationship the Deval family has developed with the Japanese market over more than three decades, including with the Higaki family that leads Imabari Shipbuilding.
