The acquisition was made by the company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Eagle Bulk Shipco LLC, and was fully funded by restricted cash generated from previous vessel sale proceeds. The M/V SHANGHAI EAGLE will form part of the security for Eagle Bulk Shipco’s outstanding bond due in 2022.

Eagle Bulk Shipping is one of the world’s largest owner-operators within the Supramax/Ultramax segment. Once the sixth of the newly acquired vessels arrives, the company’s fleet will total 50 ships, including 20 Ultramax dry bulk vessels acquired over the last 36 months.

Earlier this month, Eagle Bulk reported its financial results for the three and nine months ended 30 September 2019. It generated net revenues of US$74.1M in Q3, representing an increase of US$5M (7%) compared to the same period in 2018.

The firm realized a net loss of US$4.6M or US$0.06 per basic and diluted share, compared to a net income of US$2.6M or US$0.04 per basic and diluted share in the third quarter 2018.

Adjusted EBITDA of US$13.2M represented a decrease of US$7M or 35% compared to the same period in 2018.

Commenting on the Q3 results, Gary Vogel, Eagle Bulk’s CEO, said: “The Baltic Supramax Index was quite volatile during the quarter, with spot rates rising to multi-year highs before declining by the end of the period. Given the velocity of the rise in rates and typical lag effect of contracted voyages, we were not able to fully capture the market improvement in our quarterly TCE performance, achieving a 13% increase over the prior period.

“I think it’s important to note that our operating performance continues to be impacted by lower commercial utilisation related to our scrubber retrofit program, which is now nearing completion. We believe that having the majority of our fleet fitted with scrubbers for the impending 1 January implementation date of IMO 2020 will create a significant competitive advantage for Eagle.”