Ultramax bulker owner Belships has declared its first dividend in years after a profitable second quarter, powered by income from its commercial arm Lighthouse Navigation. The company has also inked deals to add two further Japanese ultramax newbuilding resales to its fleet and sell an older vessel. The Oslo-listed company will pay out NOK 0.40 ($0.045) per share, equal to half of its net result for the three-month period. The last time it paid a dividend to shareholders was in April 2018.

Belships recorded net profit of $22.5m for the second quarter, equivalent to earnings per share of $0.09, up a loss of $14.6m in the same period in 2020. Much of the net result was generated by Lighthouse Navigation, Belships’ in-house commercial platform that handles cargo trading. Lighthouse contributed $14.5m of Belships’ second quarter Ebitda of $36m. The platform generated net freight revenue of $31.3m between January and June this year, compared to $26.7m in net earnings from Belships’ owned fleet during the six months.

Equities analysts were excited by the results as Belships exceeded consensus estimates across the board. Norne Research said Belships is “taking it to the next level” and Fearnleys Securities described it as a “knock-out quarter”. The company smashed the analyst consensus estimate for Ebitda, which was $23m. “Clearly, this illustrates the underlying leverage in [Lighthouse] and outsized earnings potential in strengthening markets,” analysts from Fearnleys Securities said in a note on Wednesday. The team said they “expect continued strong results in the coming quarters, albeit likely at slightly lower levels“. Both Fearnleys and Norne said they would make upwards revisions to their estimates, considering the results and the contribution of Lighthouse.

Mindaugas Cekanavicius, analyst for Norne, said he expects the next two years at least to be “very strong” for Belships. “The demand growth has been strong across almost all commodities and regions through 2Q21 while we can already see the winter restocking season ahead,” he said in a note on Wednesday. “The vessel deliveries, on the other hand, are on track to be the lowest since 2007 in number of vessels and in relative terms it is approaching the lowest level in several decades.”

Belships has continued to be busy in the sale-and-purchase market, acquiring two new vessels and selling an elderly supramax. The firm said it has agreed to buy two more 64,000-dwt ultramax newbuilding resales, which are under construction at an unnamed Japanese shipyard. Beltokyo is expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter this year and Belyamato is expected to arrive at the end of 2022. Beltokyo will be leased on a 12-year bareboat charter, which comes with purchase options “significantly below current market values” that can be exercised after the fourth year until the end of the charter, Belships said. The company said it will pay $4m on signing the contract this quarter. Meanwhile, the shipowner has confirmed the sale of its geared 58,700-dwt supramax Belcargo (built 2008), which will be delivered to the unnamed buyer in November.