NYSE-listed Safe Bulkers has extended the tenor of its existing credit facility with DNB (UK) by a further two years until September 2022.
The credit facility has a balance of $145.5m outstanding and is secured against 10 of Safe Bulkers’ vessels, plus an additional newbuilding due for delivery in March, which has been added as collateral to the amended loan agreement.
The new repayment schedule commits Safe Bulkers to repaying a total of $41.7m between 2018 and September 2020, instead of the remaining $145.5m as scheduled previously. Two annual installments will follow, including a balloon payment of $84m in 2022.
“This amended credit facility with our major lender will extend the term, reduce the annual principal installments payable in the next five years and extend a balloon payment initially scheduled to be made in 2020 to maintain a comfortable debt repayment profile until 2022,” Dr. Loukas Barmparis, Safe Bulkers’ president, said in a statement today.
The Athens-based company has spent the last couple of weeks readjusting its financial commitments in response to weakening dry shipping markets and a pessimistic outlook.
Last month, Safe Bulkers refinanced three of its existing credit facilities with a new $75.3m term loan from the Royal Bank of Scotland. It also secured a new $40m term loan from Danmarks Skibskredit (Danish Ship Finance) to refinance an existing $44.9m credit facility.
