Norden wrapped up 2023 with yet another capesize acquisition, its fifth and most ambitious for the year.
The Danish shipping giant confirmed broker reports identifying as buyer of the 182,300-dwt Capt Tasos (built 2023), an ultra-modern ship delivered only in October by Namura Shipbuilding to its pevious owner, Greece and Cyprus-based Transmed Shipping.
Pricing details were not revealed.
UK broking house Clarksons said in its latest weekly report that the deal was agreed over Christmas at a price of $70.5m. Other market sources are telling TradeWinds that the price was actually a bit lower, at about $70m.
The transaction fits well with other moves made by Norden and Transmed in 2023.
The Capt Tasos is very likely not the only resale deal that Transmed concluded recently.
The Mylonas family company reportedly offloaded another sister ship just off the yard in November — the 182,300-dwt Agis (built 2023), in an as yet unconfirmed, $67.5m deal with the shipping unit of steel giant ArcelorMittal.
The price appreciation of between $2.5m and $3m achieved now by the identical Capt Tasos is characteristic of the boost capesizes have received in freight markets over the past couple of months.
Transmed has an added incentive to sell, given the relatively low price it paid to order its capesizes.
It is not clear how much the company contracted the Agis and the Capt Tasos for in 2021. Given market conditions at the time, however, their price was probably about $50m for each.
It is therefore conceivable that their sale now generates about $40m in combined gains for Transmed.
Hat-trick?
Furthermore, the Greek-Cypriot owner could repeat the trick with a third sister ship it has just taken delivery off from Namura — the 182,300-dwt Capt G (built 2023).
Norden's acquisition of the Capt Tasos also fits the Danish company's strategy.
Analysts said recently that they expected the cash-rich owner to make fleet expansion moves. The possibility of strategic acquisitions looms in the near term, bolstered by a substantial cash reserve of $700m and a pronounced interest in expansion, Clarksons Securities said in November.
Norden already started expanding into capesizes early last year, with chief executive Jan Rindbo setting a goal to build a “critical mass” of 20 to 25 such vessels within 2024.
The company began moving in this direction last March, when it spent about $120m in total to acquire four capesizes on the secondhand market — two each from GoodBulk and Star Bulk.
Norden followed up with the establishment of a capesize desk under Jesper Andersen, who joined from Oldendorff Carriers in August.
Norden’s capesize expansion would be gradual, Rindbo told TradeWinds at the time. “ … It’s not a volume thing for us, we will build it step by step,” he said.
The latest expansion move with the Capt Tasos represents a big qualitative leap in Norden’s capesize strategy.
Contrary to the mid-aged capesizes Norden acquired early last year, the Transmed vessel comes with advanced environmental and energy-saving technologies that put it at the forefront of currently available, conventionally fuelled engine technology.
According to Clarksons’ databank, the Capt Tasos and its two Namura sister ships easily obtain an environmental A rating under the International Maritime Organization’s Carbon Intensity Indicator.
A Norden focus on modern bulkers already became evident in June, when the company announced that it was placing an order for six fuel-efficient ultramax newbuildings at Dalian Cosco KHI Ship Engineering, all due for delivery between July 2025 and May 2026.
The order was the most visible sign of Norden’s pivot back towards bulkers last year. After a series of sales by early 2022 to cash in on high bulker values, the company had been left with just six owned dry cargo vessels before it began expanding again with its capesize buys last year.
Norden's latest sale activity, by contrast, is concentrated on tankers.
Between October and December, Rindbo reportedly sold four MR tankers for close to $150m in total: the 49,600-dwt Nord Sustainable, Nord Supreme (both built 2015), 50,000-dwt James Cook and Nord Steady (both built 2013).
All four ships are still listed with Norden.
