When Genco Shipping & Trading pulled the trigger on its first shareholder dividend in eight years last November, the timing made sense.
Management had spent years rebuilding the balance sheet after emerging from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring in 2014.
The market was looking up, with Genco about to turn a profit in the fourth quarter.
The New York-listed owner was close to completing a programme that fitted 17 exhaust gas cleaning systems on its capesizes, giving it a strong play on fuel spreads heading into a post-IMO 2020 marketplace.
