London-listed Taylor Maritime Investments (TMI) has bought its first bulkers beyond its initial public offering seed fleet.
The spin-off of Hong Kong's Taylor Maritime, which raised $253.7m in its IPO in May, said it had agreed to buy two unnamed Japanese-built geared handysizes for a combined $26.45m in cash.
TradeWinds understands the vessels are the 32,000-dwt Capri Queen (built 2009) from Lau's Ocean Shipping of China and the 37,000-dwt Bright Ocean (built 2012) from Toyo Kaiun in Japan.
Both vessels are being acquired at below 80% of depreciated replacement cost.
VesselsValue estimates the Bright Ocean is worth $15.9m and the Capri Queen is estimated worth $11.6m, for a total of $27.5m.
The duo is in addition to the 23 ships comprising the initial fleet and accounts for the remainder of the IPO proceeds.
Their average age is in line with TMI's current average fleet age of 10.6 years.
New charters agreed
Delivery of the two ships is expected in mid July and early November this year.
The company said in a statement: "The executive team continues to make positive progress on its pipeline of primarily handysize and supramax vessels."
The company has already fixed five of the first 23 ships on charters of about a year at an average yearly unlevered yield of more than 20%.
Chief executive Edward Buttery told TradeWinds the company is now beginning to fix other vessels over two-year terms, which he views as a good sign of confidence in the market.
He added that, with the spare cash now spent, the company will have to come back to the market to raise more if it wants to expand the fleet further.
The new charters are delivering "a strong yield and have a good duration," Buttery said.
Bright prospects
"We continue to see significant potential in the handysize market with its ongoing robust fundamentals," he added.
The TMI IPO was the first big flotation of a shipping company in the UK capital since Tufton Oceanic Assets in 2017.
In a previous update, TMI said it had completed its initial acquisition of 17 handysizes and supramaxes for $182.8m, part-financed by the issue of 93.7m shares.
These ships were already under the control of the Hong Kong affiliate. Six more will be added from third parties this year and in January 2022, with these deals already fully funded through the IPO.
TMI has previously indicated that it has identified vessels worth $500m as potential targets.
