Precious Shipping has raided the secondhand market to acquire a modern handymax bulker, the company confirmed in a regulatory filing.
The Khalid Hashim-led shipowner said it had bought Interlink Maritime’s 39,989-dwt Interlink Amenity (built 2018) for $25.25m.
Precious said the Chinese-built ship is due to be delivered by the end of April and will be registered under the Singapore flag.
This latest acquisition will be funded from internal cash reserves and/or debt financing from credit facilities available to the company, the shipowner said.
Precious said after the acquisition and delivery of the vessel, its fleet will consist of 38 vessels with an aggregate capacity of about 1.67m dwt.
The acquisition is the latest effort by Precious to modernise its bulker fleet and follows the recent sale of a veteran handysize.
In late February, the company sold the Thai-flagged 28,442-dwt Rattana Naree (built 2002) for $6.5m, a value it described at the time as the “market price”.
In the fourth quarter of last year, Precious raised about $160.5m in fresh loans to finance possible newbuildings as well as to refinance an existing loan and to refinance two handysize bulkers.
Among the new loans was a $105m sustainability-linked loan to fund the acquisition of up to six bulkers.
The loan was secured from the International Finance Corp, Export-Import Bank of Thailand and Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank.
In 2023, Precious said it signed six loan agreements for a total of $244m, of which it has drawn about $105.1m.
Last month, Precious Shipping posted a lower fourth-quarter net profit compared with a year ago on the back of weaker freight rates.
Net profit for the three months was $9.1m, about $8m lower than a year earlier as average earnings per day per ship were $12,429, down from the $14,343 per day achieved 12 months earlier.
