New York-listed Scorpio Tankers has repurchased six more ships slashing its debt by nearly $150m.
The Monaco-based company said it had given notice that it will exercise options to buy two 2016-built LR2 product tankers, the STI Grace and STI Jermyn, the 2019-built LR2 STI Lavender and three MR product tankers, the STI Magnetic and STI Marshall and STI Miracle built in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
The company, which has a fleet of 113 product tankers, said the leases bear interest at LIBOR plus 3.5% per year and that buying the vessels back will result in a debt reduction of $149.8m.
The Emanuele Lauro-led owner has taken several debt reduction actions since last summer on the back of the fundamentally sound product tanker market. The deal follows the repurchase of six MRs from China’s CMB Financial Leasing, and an option taken to take back another eight ships, moves that slashed debt by around $240m.
