DryShips says it has acquired a 158,000dwt suezmax tanker, currently under construction in China, for $64m from an entity affiliated with George Economou, its chairman and CEO.
DryShips is expecting to take delivery of the vessel before the end of the month, and will time charter it back to the Economou affiliate for five years at $25,000 per day. The charter will earn revenues of around $43.1m over the period and also includes an option to purchase at the end of the firm period.
DryShips, which just posted a first quarter loss of $10.7m, said it will finance the acquisition with cash on hand.
Commenting on the first quarter results, Economou said: “DryShips has come a long way since last year when we were fighting for the company’s survival. Since then we have cleaned up the company’s balance sheet and almost doubled our fleet by acquiring modern quality vessels. With this rapid expansion phase behind us we look forward to taking delivery of the vessels we have acquired in the last few months at historically low asset values and starting to generate revenue that will improve our bottom line and demonstrate the earnings capacity of our fleet over the next few quarters.”
