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Diana Shipping refinances with new Nordea loan facility

Athens: Greek dry bulk operator Diana Shipping has signed a term loan facility this week with Nordea Bank in London.

The NYSE-listed company wasted no time using the facility to complete a drawdown of $93.08m. The loan, which was signed on March 17, has been secured against eight of its bulk carriers, comprising the two panamaxes Leto (81,297 dwt, built 2010) and Melia (76,225 dwt, built 2005); three post-panamax vessels Polymnia (98,704 dwt, built 2012), Amphitrite (98,697 dwt, built 2012) and Coronis (74,381 dwt, built 2006); two capesizes Aliki (180,235 dwt, built 2005) and Baltimore (177,243 dwt, built 2005); and the 82,117-dwt kamsarmax Myrsini (built 2010).

Of this sum, $38.3m will go towards the existing debt carried by the vessels Leto, Melia and Polymnia. The remaining sum of $54.78m will go towards the company’s cash flow “for general corporate and working capital purposes”.

All the vessels mentioned are currently timechartered to major traders.

Diana confirmed in a conference call on March 4 that it intends to buy five new vessels within the next 12 months, on which it will spend around $70m of its own equity.

Diana has a fleet currently of 40 dry bulk vessels, with a further 3 on order to be delivered early next year.

Grant Rowles

Grant spent nine years at Informa Group based in London, Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore. He gained strong management experience in publishing, conferences and awards schemes in the shipping and legal areas, working on a number of titles including Lloyd's List. In 2009 Grant joined Seatrade responsible for the commercial development of Seatrade’s Asia products. In 2012, with Sam Chambers, he co-founded Asia Shipping Media.
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