Dallas, Texas 03/10/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – Small capped Greece based shipping firm FreeSeas Inc (NASDAQ:FREE) has announced that it has disposed off a dry bulk cargo transporter M/V Free Knight. This ocean going shop had been commissioned in 1998 and had a dead weight of 24,111 metric tons. In lieu of the sale, the company is receiving $3.6 million as proceeds. Due to the selling off of the ship at near fire sale prices, the company would be forced to report close to $24 million as impairment charges towards the reduction in its assets. One of the positive aspects of the deal was the close to $10 million gains that the firm would be able to report on the back of ahead of schedule repayment of debt and the attendant release of mortgages which were covering the M/V Free Knight and M/V Free Maverick ownership.
Explaining the reasons behind the timing of this sale, FreeSeas Inc (NASDAQ:FREE) Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company Mr. Ion G. Varouxakis has been quoted to have commented that, “The sale of the M/V Free Knight constitutes part of the balance sheet clean-up process of the company and reorganization of its assets. The Company favors utilizing its resources towards existing vessels with optimal commercial and technical specifications and new acquisitions that can immediately produce income”.
FreeSeas Inc (NASDAQ:FREE) had decided to get rid of the idle assets which were not producing revenue and concentrate on identifying and acquiring resources which would add to the company cash flow in the near future. It had generated net sales of $6.12 million for the quarter. On the back of this news, the stock rallied smartly upwards, posting a 6.35 percent increase in valuation during trading in the past one week. The shipping firm stock has been trading close to 81.3 percent below its 52 week high price point.
