UK shipowner Tufton Oceanic Assets has carried out its first sale of ships and has adding a tanker to its fleet.
The London fund manager said it had offloaded three general cargoships for $19.3m, cutting the number of vessels it owns to 15.
The realised yield and investment return exceeded the targets contained in the company's prospectus from 2018, it said.
Tufton added it expects to "redeploy" the proceeds over the next few months.
"Whilst the company aims to hold its investments over the longer term, we will sell investments where this generates additional value for shareholders," the London-listed outfit said.
Tufton did not name the vessels involved, but the owner is listed with three multipurpose ships among its bulkers, tankers and boxships: the 30,000-dwt Zea Dalian (built 2004), Zea Hamburg (built 2002) and Zea Jakarta (built 2003).
These were acquired from Zeaborn of Germany last year.
TradeWinds had reported the purchase of Zea Jakarta and the former Rickmars Dalian for $6.5m and $6.65m respectively.
Small loss booked?
Zea Hamburg was said to have been acquired for $6.75m. This totals $19.9m and suggests a small loss on the trio, if accurate.
Tufton itself said last year it had paid a total of $20.25m for the vessels in two separate deals.
VesselsValue has a current price of $6.95m, $6.12m and $6.77m on the ships.
Tanker acquired
Minutes after announcing the sales, the company then said it had acquired a product tanker for $13.25m.
The unnamed ship will have a fixed-rate time charter for three to four years to a major commodity trading and logistics company
In addition, the company has successfully renewed a charter deal for a product tanker named as Pollock, again on a fixed-rate basis for three to four year to a major trader.
"The acquisition and employment renewal will partly offset the reduction in the company's average fleet charter coverage" resulting from the cargoship sale, Tufton added.
The company retains $20m in cash after the transactions.
The latest deals come after Tufton bought an unnamed boxship in October for $8.75m. This was the first investment funded entirely from the proceeds of the share placing announced the month before, which raised $31m.
The outfit had spent $19.9m on a crude tanker at the end of September, although some of the cash came from previous share issues.
