Monday, February 09, 2009
Dryships slashes vessel price, shares rise
Fri Feb 6, 2009 9:21am EST
Feb 6 (Reuters) - DryShips Inc (DRYS.O) said it agreed to sell a Panamax vessel at nearly half the originally agreed price, as it strives to complete the sale in a drybulk market hit hard by the credit crunch.
DryShips said it anticipates a gain of about $10 million in the first or second quarter of 2009 from the sale.
The Greek dry bulk carrier said the price of its vessel, M/V Toro, will be reduced to $36.0 million form the original price of $63.4 million.
"The buyers will release the deposit of $6.3 million to DryShips immediately and will make a new deposit of $1.5 million," the company said.
Dryships also said it will retain the vessel and be entitled to claim compensation for the difference between the current market price and the original contract price, if the buyers fail to remit the remainder of the new purchase price.
Last month, the company said it would suspend its dividend, cancel previous ship orders and sell some ships in a move to preserve capital.
Also in January, Dryships said two of its banks notified it that it is in breach of certain financial covenants. The company later said it had reached an agreement with one of its largest lenders for a covenant waiver and deferral of loan instalments.
The company's shares, which have been volatile over the past few months, were up 30 cents at $6.73 in trading before the bell. They had closed at $6.43 Thursday on Nasdaq.
The Baltic Exchange's chief sea freight index .BADI, which monitors prices to ship key dry commodities, was up 9.61 percent.
Dryships' stock is down more than $100 from May 2008, while the index, excluding today's gains, has lost more than 80 percent since then. (Reporting by Adveith Nair in Bangalore, Editing by Dinesh Nair)
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