Asked whether the recent boom constitutes a supercycle for publicly listed owners, shipping financier James Lightbourn said that, while the term is loaded, there is no question that “we are witnessing a prolonged bull market in shipping which has translated into the performance of listed shipping companies.”
Mr Lightbourn, who serves as chief financial officer of Ocean Atomics and is also the author of the Freight + Fortune newsletter, emphasised that this is a geopolitics-driven boom rather than one based on shipping market fundamentals.
"The size of [Fredriksen’s] overall exposure to publicly listed dry bulk companies is now a billion dollars less than it was just a few weeks ago. He sold his Golden Ocean stake for approximately US$1.2Bn and purchased nearly US$200M worth of Star Bulk shares. Therefore, I wouldn’t rush to interpret this as a purely bullish call on the dry bulk market as a whole," noted Mr Lightbourn.
Mr. Lightbourn suggested CMB.TECH’s move was primarily driven by the opportunity to gain effective control over Golden Ocean’s 91-vessel bulk carrier fleet.