Net loss for the quarter ended 31 March 2017 was recorded at $10.71m compared to the bigger deficit of $107.15m in the same period of 2016. The wider loss in the year-ago period was due mainly to equity losses of $45.71m in Ocean Rig, which Dryships sold its stake to an Ocean Rig subsidiary.
Revenue for the first three months this year was registered at $11.81m, down 30.6% year-on-year.
“Dryships has come a long way since last year when we were fighting for the company’s survival,” commented George Economou, chairman and ceo of Dryships.
“Since then we have cleaned up the company’s balance sheet and almost doubled our fleet by acquiring modern quality assets. With this rapid expansion phase behind us we look forward to taking delivery of the vessels we have acquired in the last few months at historically low asset values and starting to generate revenue that will improve our bottomline and demonstrate the earnings capacity of our fleet over the next few quarters.”
The company’s latest vessel acquisition was made on Wednesday when it entered into an agreement with an entity affiliated with Economou to acquire one 158,000-dwt suezmax tanker currently under construction in China at a price of around $64m, with delivery scheduled in May this year.
Over the last six months, Dryships has raised approximately $570m of equity for the purpose of acquiring modern vessels in various segments.
On aggregate, the company entered into agreements to acquire 17 vessels of which 12 are with unaffiliated third parties, with an average age of two years for a total cost of around $765.5m.
Dryships is waiting to take delivery of seven dry bulk carriers, one VLCC, one aframax and one suezmax during the second quarter, and four VLGCs between June to December.
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