M/Maritime, a dry bulker owner that has expanded rapidly since launching seven years ago, has sold its first ship.
According to market sources in Athens, the 63,300-dwt All Star Atlas (built 2014), the company’s oldest ship, has been sold to Chinese interests for $24.65m.
This is slightly above the price that it was said to have changed hands for earlier this month, as TradeWinds reported.
In any case, the transaction took place well above the $22.2m that VesselsValue estimates the vessel is worth.
Some brokers report that buyers acquired the All Star Atlas, waiving inspection, and will take delivery upon completion of its current employment, no later than the end of September.
These are usually signs of a buyer’s confidence in the quality of a vessel and its current management.
The ship’s history with John Mytilineos, the Greek businessman who backs M/Maritime, predates the company’s establishment.
The All Star Atlas was the first ship Mytilineos invested in, as one of three co-investors who bought it in January 2014 as a newbuilding resale from Sinopacific’s Dayang Shipbuilding.
Upon delivery, management of the bulker was entrusted to Greece’s Ariston Navigation.
It was only two years later, when M/Maritime was founded, that management passed to the fledgling company.
M/Maritime took full ownership in August 2020, when Mytilineos’ partners in the ship — both prominent but unidentified members of the Greek shipping community — decided to sell their stakes.
Exercising the option
According to the market sources, the current sale of the All Star Atlas is not a sign that M/Maritime is about to limit its shipping exposure.
The move is rather part of a fleet renewal strategy to lower even further its already low average age.
Underpinned by an ambitious newbuilding programme at several Japanese yards, M/Maritime grew quickly to an owned fleet of 17 handysizes, ultramaxes and kamsarmaxes with an average age of just above five years.
The All Star Atlas was the oldest ship in that fleet and the only one built in China.
Even though it features an eco design and a modern electronic main engine, this puts it at a relative disadvantage to the rest of the M/Maritime fleet in terms of energy efficiency.
As ever stricter environmental regulations kick in, management will seek to replace any outgoing vessels with more modern ones.
M/Maritime is looking for a vessel close at hand.
The 63,400-dwt Rising Sky (built 2017) is an Imabari 63-design vessel that the company chartered in in 2019.
According to the market sources, it will exercise at some point over the next 12 months a purchase option it has on the ship, at an undisclosed price.
The Rising Sky is one of two vessels that M/Maritime has on long-term time charter, in addition to its fully owned fleet. The other is the 37,700-dwt Amber Star (built 2017), also built at Imabari Shipbuilding.
