Monaco’s Scorpio Bulkers, a provider of marine transportation of dry bulk commodities, announced late on November 6 that it has entered into two separate agreements with third parties to acquire three Ultramax dry bulk vessels and one Kamsarmax dry bulk vessel for an aggregate of €77.67 million ($90 million), of which €66.5 million ($77.1 million) is payable in cash and the remaining consideration is in the form of approximately 1.592 million common shares of the company to be issued to one of the sellers.
All of the Ultramax vessels were built at Chengxi Shipyard Co Ltd in China, of which two were delivered in 2014 and one in 2015. The Kamsarmax bulk carrier is a resale unit whose construction will be supervised by the company and which will be delivered from Jiangsu New Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Co Ltd in China in the second quarter of 2018.
The cash component of the vessel acquisitions will be funded by cash on hand, as well as new debt facilities which are currently under discussion with the company’s lenders.
After the completion of its recent acquisitions of ten vessels, nine Ultramax vessels and one Kamsarmax, Scorpio Bulkers will own or finance lease 56 vessels, consisting of 19 Kamsarmax and 37 Ultramax. The company also time charters-in one Ultramax vessel.
The owned fleet will have a total carrying capacity of approximately 3.9 million deadweight tonnes upon the completion of the acquisition of the nine Ultramax vessels and one Kamsarmax vessel.