Pacific Basin Acquires Ship Quartet

Hong Kong-based dry bulk shipping company Pacific Basin has decided to acquire four bulkers with 50% equity funding.

On May 14, 2018, PB Vessels Holding Limited, a subsidiary of the company, entered into four separate ship contracts for the purchase of vessels.

Bulkers in question are a 58,000 dwt Supramax built in 2010, a 64,000 dwt Supramax resale newbuild, a 37,000 dwt Handysize constructed in 2015 and a 37,000 dwt Handysize resale newbuild. Built at Tsuneishi and Imabari shipyards, the ships are expected to be delivered by the first quarter of 2019.

As informed, the ships will be bought for a total consideration of USD 88.5 million to be 50% funded by equity. The consideration will take the form of 170,760,137 new PB shares worth USD 44.29 million to be issued to ship sellers and the group’s existing cash of USD 44.21 million.

“The acquisition of the ships and the share issue are all conditional upon the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s approval of the listing of the new shares, which we expect to be granted within several days,” the company said in a statement.

The new shares are to be issued under the company’s General Mandate, and will in aggregate represent approximately 3.68% of Pacific Basin’s enlarged issued share capital after the allotment and issue of all these new shares.

Commenting on the recent move, the company said:

“We look for opportunities to buy and charter suitable quality ships for its fleet… Two of the four vessels are Supramaxes, allowing us to increase our relatively low proportion of owned versus chartered-in Supramax vessels. The dry bulk market is recovering and we consider that these purchase prices are attractive and that the vessels will be beneficially employed within the group’s fleet for the long term after they are delivered.”

“The 2015-built Handysize ship we are buying is currently under our long-term time charter, so our purchase of this vessel would replace our charter cost with significantly lower operating costs and thus benefit our operating cash flow,” Pacific Basin added.

Unrelated to this transaction, Pacific Basin also acquired a 2009 Japanese-built 32,000 dwt Handysize log/bulk carrier at the end of April in an all-cash deal with expected delivery in June 2018.

Following the delivery of this ship and the four vessels in the abovementioned transaction, Pacific Basin’s owned fleet will grow to 111 ships.