Diana Containerships gets $148m loan, extends panamax timecharter
Diana Containerships has secured a new six-year loan from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) for $148m, and has extended the timecharter of one of its panamax boxships.
On Tuesday the NASDAQ-listed company drew down $122.5m from the loan facility to prepay in full the $92.7m balance of its existing revolving credit facility with RBS.
The drawdown will also be used to partially finance the acquisition the Rotterdam (6,350 teu, built 2008), which Diana bought in July for $37.5m in a bank sale from creditors of Nautilus Holdings.
The new $148m loan facility bears interest at the rate of 2.75% over LIBOR, Diana said today. The initial drawdown has been secured against the vessels Sagitta, Centaurus, Pucon, YM March, Great, YM Los Angeles, YM New Jersey and Rotterdam.
Meanwhile, Maersk Line has extended its existing timecharter of Diana’s panamax boxship Centaurus (3,426 teu, built 2010) for a further 11 to 18 months at a gross daily rate of $10,875 , minus a 5% commission for third parties. The extension period commences on October 2.
Diana expects the extension to generate approximately $3.59m in revenue for the minimum period of the charter.
Centaurus began its timecharter with Maersk Line on February 22 this year and is currently earning a gross rate of $7,650 per day.
