Greek financial
reports citing Beta Securities say the dry bulk giant is targeting September
9-11 for the transaction, with around €100m ($116m) of shares expected to be
offered alongside the Euronext Athens listing. National Bank of Greece and AXIA
are reported to be handling the deal. Star
Bulk has yet to formally announce the transaction or file a prospectus, meaning
the final offering structure remains to be confirmed. What appears clear is
that the Athens move will be a parallel listing rather than a departure from
Wall Street, where Star Bulk has traded on Nasdaq since December 2007. It would not be Star Bulk’s first
experience with two stock exchanges. The company added an Oslo Stock Exchange
listing in 2018 following its acquisition of Songa Bulk before delisting from
Norway in August 2020.
The move comes with
the company near the top of a strong dry bulk cycle. Star Bulk posted
second-quarter net profit of $144.9m, its best quarterly showing since the
second quarter of 2022, on a fleetwide TCE of $24,486 per day. It declared a
$0.90-per-share dividend, its 22nd consecutive payout since 2021.
As of its August results, Star Bulk counted 138
owned vessels totalling 13.8m dwt on a fully delivered basis, ranging from
supramaxes to newcastlemaxes. Five kamsarmax newbuildings were still scheduled
to arrive during the second half of the year.
The company’s shares closed at
$30.48 on August 28, giving Star Bulk a market capitalisation of just under
$3.4bn. Today’s scale owes much to the
merger with Eagle Bulk Shipping completed in 2024. Splash reported at the time that the all-stock
combination created the world’s largest publicly listed bulker owner, with 163
ships immediately after completion. Star Bulk has since aggressively recycled
older assets, selling dozens of vessels while bringing newer kamsarmax tonnage
into the fleet. Star Bulk would follow
Polys Hajioannou’s Safe Bulkers into the Athens equity market. As previously
reported by Splash, Safe Bulkers began trading
on Euronext Athens in June while keeping its New York Stock Exchange listing,
saying the move would widen its European investor base and improve liquidity. Seanergy Maritime has also turned to
Athens this summer, raising €100m through a five-year corporate bond that began
trading on Euronext Athens in July. Its offering was aimed largely at financing
newbuildings and further fleet growth.
The renewed shipping
interest comes after Euronext acquired control of Hellenic Exchanges last year,
bringing Athens into the European exchange group and reopening a domestic
capital-market route for an industry whose biggest Greek names have spent the
past two decades predominantly raising equity in New York.