Greek shipping stocks taking a beating

The battering has since been recouped a little but at the beginning of week 51 many stocks were still trading at a heavy loss compared to week 49.

There are 38 Greek companies listed on stock exchanges -- 16 on the NYSE, 16 on the Nasdaq, four in Athens and two in London. Many of the US-traded Greek stocks were among the hardest hit on “Black Monday”.

A slide in share price is not new for stocks taken onto the capital market by Greek principals in the search for funds since shipping's traditional supporter, the banker, was forced by the financial crisis to close his doors to all but the elite.

Of the 38 companies listed, shares Genmar, NewLead and Athens-listed NEL Lines are not trading, while three, Box Ships, Euroseas, and FreeSeas are currently struggling to remain in compliance with listing NYSE and Nasdaq rules.

Among the biggest US-traded Greek shipping losers on 8 December, which of course were by no means the only big losers, were: DryShips (-17%); Navios Partners (-15%); Navios Holdings (-14%); Baltic Trading (-13%); Ocean Rig,

Paragon Shipping (-12%); Dorian LPG (-11%); Capital Product Partners (-10%); Navios Mainstream (-9%); Diana Shipping, Euroseas and StealthGas (-7%).

DryShips has long been among the most heavily traded shipping stock in the US public market. But on 8 December over 40.1m shares were traded, almost quadruple the average volume of the George Economou-controlled Athens-based company. DryShips subsidiary, offshore driller Ocean Rig also suffered in light of falling crude prices and though both have recovered a a little of the lost ground, DryShips is still struggling at around $0.80 a share.

Fluctuations in the stock market are to be expected but of late it has all been downhill, well almost. At the beginning of December, the Capital Link Tanker Index – which tracks publicly listed tanker stocks – was down 57% versus its 2014 peak, while the Capital Link Drybulk Index was down 38%.

Of the Greek listings, on December 12, according to Newsfront Greek Shipping Intelligence’s “Stockwatch’, eight companies were trading at a higher price than on the same stage a year ago. The remainder were in negative territory.

Three in positive territory, two GasLog and TEN make their living in the energy sector, one Aegean Marine Petroleum Network makes it supplying bunkers, while one, Attica Holdings, is a Greek ferry company listed in Athens.

Two of the companies, Costamare and Danaos operate container ships. Of the remaining two, Goldenport trades in London and Eagle Bulk Shipping has just completed a major restructuring with Oaktree Capital Management a key element in an exercise in which financial firms converted debt into 99.5% ownership of the supramax bulker owner. Oaktree is thought to hold 41% of the new company.

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