New York-listed diversified tanker owner International Seaways has signed a Nordea-led $160m revolving credit facility secured by five tankers and carrying links to environmental sustainability goals.
The lending carries an interest margin of 190 basis points over the Secured Overnight Financing Rate. That rate can vary depending on attaining certain sustainability benchmarks, but not by much: 0.075% in either direction, according to a filing with US securities regulators after the close of trading on Monday.
Nordea is leading the financing as administrative agent, while ING Bank is acting as sustainability coordinator. Credit Agricole and DNB Markets are in the consortium as bookrunners and mandated lead arrangers.
The lender group is rounded out by Danish Ship Finance and SEB as lead arrangers.
The lending has a tenor of 5.5 years, but reduces on a 20-year profile.
Lois Zabrocky-led Seaways said it had drawn $50m from the facility on 29 September for general corporate purposes, including paying certain expenses related to the new financing.
The owner of clean-product and crude tonnage said it had repaid about $104.3m earlier in September under a 2022 revolving credit facility after conducting what it called “internal sale transfers” of four collateral vessels.
Taking into account those steps, Seaways said it now has a combined $367.4m available under the 2022 revolver and the new one.
Seaways said the factors considered under the sustainability portion of the new revolver include the fleet sustainability score, the amount of sustainability-linked investment and the frequency of lost-time injuries.
As TradeWinds has reported, while green-related financing has become more common for public shipowners, the incentives in interest margin have tended to be small enough to draw scepticism around actual impact.
International Seaways provides the best value for investors of all the major tanker owners, according to a recent client note by Clarksons Securities.
The Norwegian investment bank said now is the time to increase exposure to the crude and product carrier player against a background of strong market fundamentals.
Given Seaways’ strong balance sheet and the recent increase in freight rates, they believe the company is well-positioned to pay out a special dividend in excess of 50% of net profit in the near future.
The company has a relatively low share price to net asset value ratio compared to its peers, Clarksons Securities said.
