Euroseas recently sold its two oldest vessels, M/V Gregos and M/V Artemis.
Built in 1984, M/V Gregos is a 38,691 dwt geared dry bulk carrier that was sold for a whopping $7.9 million and will be used for further trading. The 1987 built, 2098 TEU gearless containership, M/V Artemis however was sold for scrap at $282/lwt, fetching around $3.2 million. The sales of both ships mean a book loss of $8.7 million to Euroseas.
Apart from the latest sales news, the company also entered into a non-binding Letter of Intent with Eton Park Capital Management and Rhône Capital III (Rhône). The joint venture was reached with the intent of pursuing shipping investment opportunities.
Euroseas will put up around $25 million in investment while Eton Park and Rhone will cough up close to $75 million. The company and its associates will manage the vessels acquired under the joint venture.
Aristides Pittas, chairman and CEO of Euroseas, said: “As we have repeatedly said in the past, we expect that our core markets will provide us with significant investment opportunities over the next couple of years. During 2009, we disposed of our three 25- year old bulkers and replaced them with three vessels with an average age of 10 years. We have also sold the 22-year old containership, M/V Artemis. As a result of these transactions, the average age of our fleet decreased to approximately 16 years. We have a strong balance sheet which we intend to use to exploit investments opportunities in our market sectors.”
