George Economou’s DryShips has quietly picked up a series for four post-panamax newbuildings in China.
Nasdaq-listed DryShips revealed the $136m swoop more than two months after the deal was placed as it reported its fourth quarter earnings.
It has also penned loans to cover a chunk of its newbuilding orderbook, investors discovered.
In a statement DryShips says it ordered the four ice-classed vessels on 16 December at $34m each.
The ships, booked at an established Chinese yard, will hit the water in 2014, DryShips says.
It is suggested Rongsheng Heavy Industries is the yard involved in the deal.
DryShips has secured a $87.7m loan with HSH Nordbank to pay for three dry-cargo newbuildings.
A $122.6m credit facility with China Development Bank to partially cover three VLOCs was also announced, but this was previously in place for Ocean Freight which DryShips bought out last year, analysts say.
This will fall under the $5bn China-Greece Shipping Development Fund and is the first syndicated loan to do so without any western bank involvement.
The $122.6m credit facility, which was confirmed on Thursday by DryShips, will be to partially finance construction of three 206,000 dwt newcastlemax bulkers among a series of five on order at Shanghai Jiangnan-Changxing Shipbuilding which were part of the takeover of the OceanFreight fleet last year.
DryShips, which posted a loss of $6.2m in the fourth quarter, now has 12 dry-cargo newbuildings on order.
It also has a series of seven new crude tankers to come from Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea.