Maritime mammoth Zodiac Maritime has been linked to the purchase of two containerships sold on the cheap.

The sale of the two 8,845teu sisterships – Santa Livia, built in 2007 and the one year older Santa Laura – was first reported sold some weeks back, but no buyer was then identified. Now a list of broker reports confidently link London headquartered Zodiac to the two ships sold by Germany's Offen Group at what appears to be bargain en bloc price of just US$29m as online portal VesselsValue.com sets the total market value for the two ships at US$5.6m more.

Eyal Ofer's Zodiac Maritime operates a modern fleet of containerships with sizes ranging from 500 to 13,100 teu and has over 40 boxships in its fleet.