Golden Ocean Group Limited, the world’s leading owner of large-size dry bulk vessels, has entered into an agreement to acquire six modern 208,000 deadweight tons (dwt) vessels equipped with exhaust gas cleaning systems, or scrubbers, for a total consideration of $291 million, according to the company's release.
The newly-acquired vessels will be chartered back to their former owner, an unrelated third party, for approximately 36 months at an average daily time charter equivalent rate of approximately $21,000 net.
The acquisition will be financed by a new $233 million credit facility, which will be secured by the newly-acquired vessels and two unencumbered vessels, and cash on hand. Over the past 24 months, Golden Ocean has sold 11 older vessels, generating aggregate net proceeds of approximately $124 million. These proceeds are sufficient to fund the majority of the expected equity required, based on conservative debt financing assumptions, for the ten Kamsarmax newbuildings currently under construction as well as the six newly-acquired vessels.
Following the Acquisition, Golden Ocean will be the world’s largest publicly-listed dry bulk company in terms of dwt.
Golden Ocean, a dry bulk shipping company, owns or controls a modern fleet of 99 vessels with an average age of approximately six years, following the above transaction. The company is the largest owner of Capesize vessels and has a leading position in the ice-class Panamax vessel niche. Golden Ocean is listed on the NASDAQ and Oslo Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘GOGL’.