Belships Grows Fleet with Supramax Bulker

Norway-based bulk ship operator Belships has signed an agreement to acquire a 58,700 dwt bulk carrier from Wenaas Shipping AS.

The Supramax bulker was built at Tsuneishi Heavy Industries (Cebu) in the Philippines in 2008.

As informed, the agreed purchase price is USD 13 million, of which half will be paid in cash. The remaining consideration will be settled through a proposed issue of 8,060,650 new Belships shares to the seller of the vessel.

Belships expects the cash payment to be fully financed within the loan unveiled last month.

Delivery of the acquired vessel is expected in the second quarter of 2019.

Following the completion of the transaction, the Belships fleet will count 16 Supramax/Ultramax bulk carriers. Furthermore, the group will take delivery of one newbuild in the first half of 2020.

Belships further said that its strategy is to grow as a fully integrated shipowner and operator of geared bulk carriers. The proposed share issue will, in line with the group’s shareholder strategy, expand Belships’ shareholder base and improve share liquidity.

In a separate statement, Belships shared new details regarding the mandatory offer made by Kontrari AS and Kontrazi AS (Lighthouse) to acquire all issued and outstanding shares in the company.

On April 1, 2019, the offerors were notified that acceptances under the offer for 745,704 shares have been received.

Together with the 120,454,198 shares already owned and previous acceptances, Kontrari AS and Kontrazi AS will thus, upon completion of the offer, own and hold rights to a total of 128,004,088 shares, corresponding to 73.1% of the issued shares and outstanding votes in Belships.