Dry bulk shipping company Pacific Basin Shipping Limited has inked a conditional agreement to acquire five dry bulk vessels worth USD 104.6 million availing of the attractive secondhand prices on the market.

The acquisitions relate to two 2014-built Supramaxes worth USD 34 million, a 2014-built Handysize worth USD 21.1 million, a 2016-built Supramax worth USD 23.5 million and one resale newbuilding Supramax due for delivery in January 2018 worth USD 26 million.

As disclosed, the consideration will take the form of 216,9 million of new Pacific Basin shares to be issued to the ships’ sellers amounting to USD 46.1 million, USD 38 million of cash, conditionally raised through a placing of new Pacific Basin shares to institutional investors, and USD 20.5 million from the group’s cash.

The acquisition of the ships and the share placing are all conditional upon the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s approval of the listing of the vessel consideration shares and the placing shares respectively.

The company said it expects the approval to be granted within several days.

The fleet additions are slated for delivery between mid-August and end of December this year.

“These ship purchases represent attractive opportunities to grow and renew our fleet with modern, efficient vessels built by large, reputable shipbuilders Imabari and Tsuneishi. They are of the best design for our trades and will enhance our fleet for the long term.

“We are increasing our relatively low proportion of owned vs chartered in Supramaxes at what we consider an attractive time.

The 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 and depreciation costs, and thus benefit our operating cash flow,” Mats Berglund, CEO of Pacific Basin, said.

As at 30 June 2017, the company’s fleet of operated ships comprised about 250 dry bulk ships of which 101 are owned and 156 are chartered.