Bulker giant Oldendorff Carriers has sold one of its newcastlemax bulk carriers to US investment bank JP Morgan.
The German outfit is divesting its 209,300-dwt Hark Oldendorff (built 2016), which was built at China's Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding.
Brokers report the unit has been sold for $45m but TradeWinds understands that the price tag is in excess of this and would equate to roughly $50m if the vessel was being delivered today.
Delivery to the buyer will be made in January 2022. Its special survey was due in July.
Andrian Dacy, global head of transportation at JP Morgan Asset Management, said the newcastlemax is a "natural addition to our extensive capesize fleet".
"We look forward to trading the vessel within our existing network of counter parties in the iron ore sector," he told TradeWinds.
Magnus Fyhr, analyst for New York-based investment bank HC Wainwright & Co, said the Hark Oldendorff is being sold at 7% above his firm's valuation, based on the reported price of $45m.
He said this price is 18% above the last five-year-old newcastlemax vessel reported sold in December last year.
Online platform VesselsValue estimates the Hark Oldendorff's current market value at $49.74m.
Maritime Strategies International values the ship at between $41.9m and $48.1m.
This is the latest deal by JP Morgan since the banking giant made its debut in the LR2 tanker segment last month.
As TradeWinds reported in July, the company purchased two 114,000-dwt aframax product tankers that are being built at South Korea’s Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction for $110m en bloc.
Long history
Oldendorff bought the Hark Oldendorff last year, when it was known as Trust Amity, in an en-bloc transaction with two other bulkers from Singapore's Trust Energy Resources, which is part of Indian industrial conglomerate Tata Group.
The company paid $213m for the Trust Amity and the South Korean-built, 181,000-dwt capesizes Trust Agility and Trust Integrity (both built 2011).
The sales price included the vessels' respective contracts of affreightment for coal bound for India.
Prior to the transaction, the Trust Amity had been on time charter to Oldendorff since its delivery from the shipyard in 2016.
At the time of buying the vessel, Oldendorff CEO Peter Twiss said the acquisition would strengthen the company's trades in and out of India.
"We see India as one of the drivers for the years to come for the dry bulk market, and we want to be part of that growth," he said last year.
