Leading Indian mining player MSPL, which is described as the flagship company of the Baldota Group, has been linked to a vessel sale that would see it potentially exit shipowning.
But a company executive has denied reports that it has sold its four vessels.
European brokers said the company has sold the post-panamax bulkers, whose order 13 years ago saw the miner enter the shipowning space.
The sources said the 92,000-dwt Indus Victory (built 2013), Indus Triumph (built 2012), Indus Prosperity and Indus Fortune (both built 2011) have gone to an undisclosed buyer for $51m en bloc.
VesselsValue estimates that a quartet of ships with these characteristics is worth $64.2m. The two oldest ships are due for special survey this year.
MSPL did not respond to repeated requests for comment before this article was originally published. But Mathews Abraham, the assistant general manager for technical at shipping arm MSPL Diamond, said reports of the sales are "false news".
Sources said MSPL ordered the bulkers in China in 2008, paying about $50m each to Taizhou Sanfu Ship Engineering, although the deal was not reported at the time.
TradeWinds reported last year that the Indus Victory and Indus Triumph had entered Baumarine by MaruKlav, a pool formed out of the merger of Torvald Klaveness' Baumarine and Marubeni's MG Harrison. The two ships remain in the pool.
At the time, Baldota Group's chief executive said he hoped the pool could help lift earnings and vessel performance, and expand its network of potential charterers.
The remaining two vessels are in the spot market.
The group was founded by Abheraj H Baldota in 1961 and is a highly diversified company, which set up in Singapore some 10 years ago.
