London: DryShips is selling four of its suezmax tankers for an en-bloc price of $245m, and is in talks to divest six more aframaxes.
Firm sales agreements are in place for the suezmax vessels Vilamoura (158,600 dwt, built 2011), Lipari (158,400 dwt, built 2012), Petalidi (158,500 dwt, built 2012) and Bordeira (157,700 dwt, built 2013).
The vessels, which are managed by the Economou Group’s Tankship Investment Holdings, are all being sold to “entities controlled by the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, George Economou”, a statement said today.
They will be delivered between July 1 and October 31 this year.
“We are pleased to announce the sales of our four suezmax tankers. Net of the repayment of associated secured bank debt, these transactions are expected to generate approximately $125m in free cash which will be used to prepay an amount under our ABN AMRO Bridge Loan which has a balance of $185m as of today, as well as for general corporate purposes,” Ziad Nakhleh, CFO of DryShips, said.
The NASDAQ-listed company is now in talks to potentially sell six aframax vessels to Economou-controlled companies. These vessels are Belmar (115,900 dwt, built 2011), Calida (115,800 dwt, built 2012), Alicante (115,700 dwt, built 2013), Mareta (115,800 dwt, built 2013), Saga (115,700 dwt, built 2011) and Daytona (115,700 dwt, built 2011). All are managed by Tankship Investment Holdings.
The purchaser has until June 30 to confirm unconditional acceptance of the sales agreement, which has an en-bloc sales price of $291m if confirmed before this date.
“Assuming the confirmation of the purchasers by the due date, we expect these transactions will generate approximately an additional $150m in free cash, which could be potentially used to prepay any remaining outstanding amount under our ABN AMRO bridge loan and for other general corporate purposes,” Nakhleh said of the possible aframax sale.
For both sales agreements, 20% of the sale price will be paid up front, with the balance to be paid on delivery, DryShips said.
Online platform VesselsValue.com values the four suezmaxes to be collectively worth $252.3m; the six afras are together valued at $308.5m in the current market.
