Ocean Freighters, a low-profile Greek bulker specialist, has sold its only capesize to become a pure-play kamsarmax and post-panamax company.
The Moustakas family-owned outfit paid the Angelicoussis Group an eye-watering $110m for the 177,900-dwt Pontotriton (ex-Anangel Wisdom, built 2007) in a resale deal 17 years ago.
Having held on to the vessel, Ocean Freighters was probably grasping the opportunity to offload the ageing capesize amid firm secondhand prices.
Several brokers report the Piraeus-based company has found Chinese buyers for the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding-built ship, at a price between $23m and $23.3m.
Some Greek sources identify the buyer as Kaishun Shipping, a Hong Kong-based entity that rarely makes headlines and is not currently listed as managing any vessels.
Chinese outfits buying ageing Greek capesizes would hardly come as a surprise.
TradeWinds reported on Monday about Angelicoussis firm Maran Dry Management selling the 174,000-dwt Maran Prosperity (built 2006) to a Chinese company. The scrubber-fitted vessel is said to have fetched $21.5m.
If confirmed, the Pontotriton and Maran Prosperity sales would be the latest deals in a long line of similar transactions.
Greek owners sold 27 capesizes in 2023 and another 17 so far this year worth over $1bn in total, according to TradeWinds reports of confirmed deals.
Chinese companies were the single biggest group of buyers, accounting for 15 of these deals, with an aggregate value of more than $300m.
The capesizes sold in that period had an average age of about 18 years.
Most Greek companies have been reinvesting the proceeds in younger tonnage and Ocean Freighters is likely no exception.
Just a few days after reporting the sale of the Pontotriton, brokers tied Ocean Freighters to the acquisition of a younger kamsarmax, the 80,900-dwt Elsa S (built 2015). The current owner of the Elsa S, Japan’s Nissen Kaiun, is said to have agreed to part with the vessel for $30.5m.
Managers at Ocean Freighters did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Swapping a capesize for a kamsarmax would be in line with the company’s policy.
Ocean Freighters management expressed its intention in recent years to focus on relatively younger kamsarmaxes, which are more employable under tighter environmental regulation standards.
According to its website, Ocean Freighters has been managing vessels for more than half a century.
Starting with general cargo vessels in the 1970s, the company swiftly shifted to panamaxes and capesizes.
