OceanPal, a US-listed owner of five bulkers and a product tanker, reported a net loss for the second quarter of the year, despite rising revenue, as it was weighed down by an extraordinary charge of $6.761m.
Classified as an “other operating loss”, the item refers to a payment the company disclosed on May 20 in connection with a disagreement with minority shareholder George Economou.
The $6.75m payment disclosed then was meant as compensation for Economou to bury the hatchet with OceanPal’s management under a “support agreement” concluded between the two sides.
As a result of the payment, on Wednesday OceanPal reported a net loss attributable to common shareholders of $8.62m for the three months to the end of June, compared with a narrow profit of $483,000 in the same period of 2023.
Net income was also negatively affected by a $1.1m impairment loss, which the company did not elaborate on.
OceanPal’s time charter revenue increased by an annual pace of about 25% over the same period to $6.74m.
The Palios family-controlled company entered the product tanker business last month, when it acquired the 50,000-dwt MR tanker Zeze Start (built 2009) from one of its directors.
A couple months before, OceanPal had agreed to sell one of its two capesizes, the 177,200-dwt Baltimore (built 2005), to unidentified buyers for $18.25m before commissions.
This sale was agreed right after Richland Bulk extended an expiring charter for the vessel until November at a higher rate of $22,000 per day, minus a 5% commission paid to third parties.
