Norway-based dry bulk shipping company Golden Ocean Group (GOGL) has signed a new deal to sell six of its Ultramax vessels to an undisclosed party for $142.5m.
GOGL has revealed that the unnamed party is not related to the company.
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All the six vessels to be sold under the new deal were built at Chengxi Shipyard in China between 2015 and 2017, and are expected to be delivered during the fourth quarter of this year.
GOGL plans to use $39.2m from the net cash proceeds to repay its debt.
GOGL subsidiary Golden Ocean Management CEO Birgitte Vartdal said: "The sale of these vessels strengthens our commercial focus on Capesize and Panamax vessels, where we have critical mass and that we believe will provide the greatest leverage to a recovery in the dry bulk shipping market.
"It also increases our financial flexibility considerably as the majority of the gross proceeds will directly increase our cash balance."
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By GlobalDataIn addition, GOGL is set to take early delivery of a Capesize vessel, Golden Nimbus, from New Times Shipbuilding ahead of schedule.
The company expects to make a final payment of $29.4m to receive the vessel and will draw $25m from related bank financing in early October this year, resulting in a net cash outlay of $4.4m.
GOGL also noted that it has placed five of 44 Capesize vessels in its 2018 operating fleet on charters for one year.
The company currently owns or controls a fleet of 71 vessels and has five Capesize newbuilding contracts.
