Target Marine is believed to have shaken out nearly one-third of its fleet in deals that will recoup the low-profile Greek owner’s investment in acquiring the vessels — plus the gains from trading them for several years.
Managers at the Piraeus-based company did not respond to a request for comment on several brokers reporting a $52m to $52.5m en-bloc sale of its two most modern vessels — the 63,000-dwt sister ships Syros Island (built 2015) and Andros Island (built 2016).
This is not the first time the Chinese-built pair has been reported sold. Rumours about a sale first surfaced in February 2022, at $25m each.
The surging sale-and-purchase bulker market, however, seems much riper now to support deals at that elevated price level.
If the deal is confirmed, Target Marine would be recouping — in nominal terms — all the money it spent to order the vessels as newbuildings about a decade ago.
According to VesselsValue, the Comninos family company ordered the Andros Island and Syros Island at Sinopacific Shipbuilding’s Zhejiang shipyard for $26m each.
It booked a third ship there, but this did not turn out to be a profitable investment.
Before taking delivery of the 2017-built ship that would be called Milos Island, Target Marine offloaded it in an $18.3m resale to interests linked to Victor Restis-controlled Enterprises Shipping & Trading.
The Andros Island and Syros Island were delivered as planned and have since been trading uninterruptedly with Target Marine.
They are not the only ships the company is believed to have sold this year.
In January, several broking sources said an older vessel, the Japanese-built 55,600-dwt Advance (built 2007), was going to undisclosed buyers for $13.8m.
That deal has not been confirmed yet and the supramax is still listed in Target Marine’s fleet.
More sales?
A deal, however, does not look improbable if one considers that the company spent just $12.7m to buy it in November 2017 from its Japanese owners.
A sale of all three ships would shrink the fleet to seven vessels — three panamaxes, two kamsarmaxes and two supramaxes built between 2004 and 2012.
Target Marine represents just one facet of the Comninos family’s shipping interests. Its tanker arm, Horizon Tankers, has a dozen suezmaxes and MR2s.
