Taylor Maritime Sells Three Handysizes as Its Chief Executive Buys In
Two transactions worth $48.6m cut the owned fleet from five ships to two as the wind-down nears the $1bn mark
Taylor Maritime has agreed two transactions worth a combined $48.6m that will cut its owned fleet from five ships to two, with chief executive Ed Buttery on the buyer side of both.
Buttery-controlled T3 Holding is taking one handysize outright for $15m. The vessel was carried in Taylor Maritime's accounts at $13.7m at the end of March. T3 will also acquire 51% of a newly established company that will own two further handysizes, paying an estimated $17.2m, with the unrelated third party Hermes World Maritime taking the remaining 49% for about $16.4m. That puts T3 on the buyer side for roughly $32.2m of the overall transaction.
Both deals are classed as related-party transactions under UK listing rules. The board judged the terms fair and reasonable so far as shareholders are concerned, a view supported by sponsor Jefferies International. Across the three ships, aggregate book value at the end of March was around $47m against the $48.6m sale consideration.
The filing does not name the vessels. One is held through IVS Bulk 554 Pte Ltd, which class records identify as the 2016-built, 37,700 dwt IVS Tembe. Another sits under Julius (MI), the special-purpose company behind a Japanese-built 37,200 dwt handysize dating from 2012.
Most of the net proceeds are expected to go back to shareholders through another compulsory partial redemption. Taylor Maritime will continue to provide commercial management and corporate administration to T3 and to the new two-ship owning company for a transitional period.
The sale and purchase programme is now close to the end of the road, and close to $1bn in total disposals. Buttery has steadily dismantled what was once one of the largest geared dry bulk platforms in the market, a fleet that topped 50 ships after the acquisition of Grindrod Shipping and stood at five owned vessels by the end of June. This latest transaction leaves the company with a single handysize and one ultramax.
Taylor Maritime called time on its five-year London run in July, announcing an orderly wind-down under which remaining assets are sold, proceeds returned to investors and the company ultimately ceases trading.
