Belships has moved one of its older ultramaxes to a Norwegian KS (limited partnership) company and replaced it with a newer model. Chief executive Lars Christian Skarsgard confirmed to TradeWinds that the 63,000-dwt Belpareil (built 2015) is in the process of being sold. He did not disclose the buyer but did say it was organized using the KS structure. Broker reports suggested the ship is being sold for $29.5m, with VesselsValue assessing it to be worth $28m.

Belships then announced on Wednesday that it had acquired an unnamed 64,000-dwt, 2020-built ultramax financed through a five-year time charter agreement with options for a further three years. It has a non-binding option to purchase the vessel at the end of the charter “significantly below current market levels”.

The ultramax enters Belships’ fleet with a 10 to 12-month charter at $30,000 per day. The Belpariel was built at China’s Jiangsu New Hantong Ship Heavy Industry and is flagged in Norway. It is one of four ships in Belships’ fleet built in 2015. Together, they are the oldest of the company’s 29 vessels. Over the past year, Belships has sold off five of its older supramaxes and cut sale-and-leaseback deals for three other ultramaxes, one a newbuilding. The two ultramaxes currently on the water subject to those deals are the 61,000-dwt Belforest (built 2015) and 63,100-dwt Bellight (built 2016). The leases included a fixed interest rate and an average cost of capital of about 4.4%. KS arrangements have been used in a few sale-and-purchase deals in recent years.

Last year, German shipowner Oskar Wehr used the structure to create Selmer Bulk, in which it had a 25% stake in eight handysizes and two supramaxes purchased in a $37m equity deal. Oslo’s Atlantica Shipping has used the KS system, as well, purchasing the 50,800-dwt MR2 product tanker Arctic Bay (built 2006) in December.