Greece’s Globus Maritime has sold a vessel holding company that beneficially owns one of its panamax bulk carriers in order to pay off a loan from Commerzbank.
Kelty Marine Ltd, the owner of Energy Globe (79,400 dwt, built 2010), was sold to an unnamed third party on Monday, along with its cargo claims, Globus said.
No sale price was disclosed, but online platform VesselsValue.com estimates Energy Globe‘s current market value at $8.18m.
The proceeds will be used to pay off some of the remaining balance of Globus’ loan from the bank, which the company believes will result in the remaining principal amount of the loan being written off. Some $17.65m of the loan was outstanding, as of December 31, 2014.
Globus Shipmanagement Corp, the NASDAQ-listed company’s ship management subsidiary, will continue to act as Kelty Marine’s ship manager “for the time being”, a filing said today.
Globus has not been in compliance with the Commerzbank loan agreement since at least the end of 2014 because the panamax’s asset value has fallen below the loan’s security value requirement.
The Commerzbank loan for $26.65m was secured in June 2010, when Globus bought the vessel (then Jin Star) for $41m. The interest rate was LIBOR plus 2.25%.
When falling asset values caused Globus to breach other loan covenants during 2014, the Athens-based company received waivers from its other lenders but did not receive one from Commerzbank.
