A 10-year-old capesize bulker that was rumoured to have been sold for $37m four months ago is now changing hands for $41m, reflecting the heady state of the sale-and-purchase market.
The 181,400-dwt True Cartier (built 2014), which is controlled by a fund managed and arranged by JP Morgan, is being bought by Oldendorff Carriers, according to market sources and brokers.
Managers at the giant German owner and operator declined to comment.
If confirmed, the deal would disrupt Oldendorff’s recent S&P pattern. It was mainly active as a bulker seller last year and the True Cartier would represent its first capesize purchase on the secondhand market in more than three years.
JP Morgan likely sees the recent capesize buying frenzy as an opportunity to generate cash for the versatile and forward-looking shipping segments it has been investing in recently.
A sale at $41m would slightly exceed, in nominal terms, the $40.5m that JP Morgan spent to acquire the ship more than five years ago from Japan’s Nissen Kaiun.
The True Cartier is the second-oldest in the fleet of 17 capesizes and newcastlemaxes of JP Morgan subsidiary Global Meridian Holdings. Most of that fleet consists of ships built between 2015 and 2017.
JP Morgan Global Transportation Group has invested in the transport industry since 2010 and manages more than $8bn in assets in the maritime, energy logistics, intermodal, rail and aircraft sectors.
In recent months, the US investment giant, as well as the clients it advises and the companies it controls, placed orders for offshore wind vessels, LNG carriers, methanol-fuelled MR tankers and car carriers.
JP Morgan has also expanded its bulker footprint recently but in smaller sizes.
As TradeWinds reported, JP Morgan spent about $120m last year to buy six handysize bulkers from Singapore owner Swire Bulk.
Andrian Dacy, managing director and group head of the global transportation group at JP Morgan Asset Management, said at the time that he saw “attractive opportunities” in that market “as minor bulk demand increases and associated trade routes grow in complexity”.
Managers at JP Morgan did not respond to a request for comment on whether they sold the True Cartier.
Some market sources identified UK-based Hayfin Capital as the ship’s buyer but TradeWinds understands this information is inaccurate.
This article has been amended since publication to reflect that the True Cartier is owned by a fund managed and arranged by JP Morgan.
