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Scorpio Tankers gets loan, extends timecharter, nixes newbuilding options

Scorpio Tankers will not exercise its options for additional MR product tankers and has secured a new loan for $36m. Meanwhile, the company has extended its existing timecharter of an LR2 tanker.

The NYSE-listed shipowner has four 51,000-dwt and four 50,000-dwt MR tankers on order at South Korea’s Hyundai Mipo shipyard for 2017 delivery, but Scorpio said today it will not exercise its options for four more.

The company’s orderbook also includes four LR2s are expected to be delivered one per quarter in 2016.

The new $36m loan facility has been agreed with “a leading international financial institution” and will be used to refinance the debt on one of Scorpio’s 2015-built LR2 product tankers. The loan has a tenor of three years from the drawdown date and bears interest at LIBOR plus a margin of 1.50% per annum, Scorpio said.

In addition, the company said it has this month exercised its option to extend its timecharter of an LR2 for one year at $22,600 daily, effective February 2016.

The vessel is likely to be Densa Crocodile (105,500 dwt, built 2015), which is owned by Turkey’s Marinsa Shipping. Scorpio fixed the vessel in October 2014 on a one-year timecharter that commenced in early February this year at a rate of $21,500 per day.

The contract, which expires in February 2016, originally included a 12-month extension option at $22,000 daily, according to data from brokers.

Holly Birkett

Holly is Splash's Online Editor and correspondent for the UK and Mediterranean. She has been a maritime journalist since 2010, and has written for and edited several trade publications. She is currently studying for membership of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. In 2013, Holly won the Seahorse Club's Social Media Journalist of the Year award. She is currently based in London.
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