Star Bulk Prepares an Athens Listing Alongside Its Nasdaq Quotation
Around €100m of shares are expected in the 9-11 September window, following Safe Bulkers into the Greek market
Star Bulk Carriers is preparing to add Athens to its long-standing Nasdaq listing, making the Petros Pappas-led owner the latest major Greek shipping name to return to the domestic capital market.
The transaction is being targeted for 9 to 11 September, with around €100m ($116m) of shares expected to be offered alongside a Euronext Athens listing. National Bank of Greece and AXIA are handling the deal. The company has yet to announce the transaction formally or file a prospectus, so the final offering structure remains to be confirmed.
What is clear is that Athens would sit beside Wall Street rather than replace it. Star Bulk has traded on Nasdaq since December 2007, and this would not be its first experience of two exchanges: it added an Oslo listing in 2018 following the acquisition of Songa Bulk, then delisted from Norway in August 2020.
The timing places the company near the top of a strong dry bulk cycle. Star Bulk posted a second-quarter net profit of $144.9m, its best quarterly result since the second quarter of 2022, on a fleetwide time charter equivalent of $24,486 per day. It declared a dividend of $0.90 per share, the 22nd consecutive payout since 2021. Shares closed at $30.48 on 28 August, giving a market capitalisation of just under $3.4bn.
On a fully delivered basis the fleet runs to 138 owned vessels totalling 13.8m dwt, ranging from supramaxes to newcastlemaxes, with five kamsarmax newbuildings still scheduled to arrive during the second half of the year. Much of that scale came from the 2024 all-stock merger with Eagle Bulk Shipping, which created the largest publicly listed bulker owner with 163 ships on completion. Star Bulk has since recycled older tonnage aggressively, selling dozens of vessels while bringing in newer kamsarmaxes.
The move follows a pattern. Polys Hajioannou's Safe Bulkers began trading on Euronext Athens in June while keeping its New York listing, citing a wider European investor base and improved liquidity. Seanergy Maritime raised €100m through a five-year corporate bond that began trading in Athens in July, aimed largely at financing newbuildings. The reopening of that route follows Euronext taking control of Hellenic Exchanges last year, which brought Athens into the European exchange group.
