EuroDry acquires panamax bulk carrier

(Posted on 15/11/18)

EuroDry Ltd., an owner and operator of drybulk vessels and provider of seaborne transportation for drybulk cargoes, has announced that it signed a memorandum of agreement to purchase the M/V Star of Nippon (to be renamed M/V Starlight), a panamax size drybulk carrier of 75,845 dwt built in 2004 in Japan.

The vessel is expected to be delivered to the Company by the end of November 2018. The Company expects to finance the acquisition with funds at hand and debt which is in the process of arranging. Aristides Pittas, Chairman and CEO of EuroDry Ltd., commented: “We are very pleased to commence the process of growing EuroDry Ltd by acquiring M/V Star of Nippon, a vessel that will complement perfectly the rest of our Japanese built panamaxes and our three newbuilt vessels, an ultramax and two kamsarmaxes. We believe that the drybulk market will provide significant opportunities for positive returns over the next several years and we have been working to position EuroDry to take full advantage of them for the benefit of our shareholders.”

EuroDry Ltd. was formed on January 8, 2018 under the laws of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to consolidate the drybulk fleet of Euroseas Ltd into a separate listed public company. EuroDry was spun-off from Euroseas Ltd on May 30, 2018; it trades on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the ticker EDRY. EuroDry operates in the dry cargo, drybulk shipping market. EuroDry's operations are managed by Eurobulk Ltd., an ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 certified affiliated ship management company and Eurobulk (Far East) Ltd. Inc., which are responsible for the dayto-day commercial and technical management and operations of the vessels. EuroDry employs its vessels on spot and period charters. After the acquisition of the M/V Star of Nippon, the Company will have a fleet of 7 vessels, including 4 Panamax drybulk carriers, 1 Ultramax drybulk carrier and 2 Kamsarmax drybulk carriers. EuroDry’s 7 drybulk carriers will have a total cargo capacity of 528,929 dwt.