Taylor Maritime Investments has lined up deals to buy five bulkers from Japanese and German shipowners ahead of a $250m London initial public offering planned for 27 May.

The purchases are part of Taylor Maritime chief executive Edward Buttery’s plan to spin off Taylor Maritime Investments (TMI) to acquire a "seed" fleet of modern, geared handysizes and supramaxes.

In its recently released IPO prospectus, TMI said it had agreed to conditionally acquire a portfolio of 23 handysize and supramax bulkers, 17 of which were already under the commercial management of Taylor Maritime.