A Taiwanese financier is testing the waters with a sale and leaseback to Taiwan’s Kuang Ming and is said to be interested in more shipping deals but only for well-qualified customers.

Officials at the shipowner’s headquarters are unwilling to comment but brokers say Kuang Ming has finally succeeded in putting together a sale-and-leaseback deal for two panamax bulkers — the Imabari-built, 76,000-dwt Medi Taipei (built 2003) and the Taiwan-built, YM Rightness (built 2004) — that have long been reported on the market.