Star Bulk pushes ahead with buybacks

STAR Bulk Carriers, the Nasdaq-listed dry bulk giant, has splashed more than $30m on repurchasing its own shares in the last two and a half months, according to a filing.

The company said that it had bought back close to 2m shares at an average purchase price of $16.21 per share, spending a total of $32.2m in doing so.

For comparison, the share opened at $17.56 in New York on Monday but by mid-morning had slid back to just under $17 in trading.

The amount of shares repurchased is estimated to represent less than 2% of the company’s prior outstanding stock and after cancellation leaves the total number of outstanding issued shares at 115,603,652.

The company, which controls a fleet of 146 bulkers ranging from supramaxes up to newcastlemaxes, has now spent more than $50m on buybacks since the start of 2025.

During the first three months of this year, Star Bulk repurchased 1.3m shares for a total amount of $19.6m.

Executives recently identified share buybacks as “first priority” in terms of using excess cash for the company.

Co-chief financial officer Christos Begleris told a first-quarter earnings call: “As long as our shares trade at a meaningful discount to NAV [net asset value], today’s levels essentially, the opportunity to buy back shares at a significant discount to NAV by using proceeds from vessels sold at NAV essentially locks in a very nice arbitrage for us.”

Chief executive Petros Pappas has told investors that the company plans “to remain committed to this strategy” of using vessel sale proceeds to fund buybacks at discounts to NAV and “enhance shareholder returns”.

The Greece-based owner was expected to rake in $38.5m during the current period of the year from the sale of three older bulkers from the fleet.