SFL Corp sold a new five-year bond on Wednesday.
The New York-listed shipowner successfully placed NOK 750m ($69m) of senior unsecured bonds.
Net proceeds will be used for calling the outstanding amount of its NOK 600m bond, maturing in January 2025, the John Fredriksen-backed company said in a statement.
The new bonds will pay a quarterly coupon of the three-month Norwegian interbank offered rate (Nibor) plus 3.25 %.
The 2025 bonds carry an interest of the three-month Nibor plus 4.4%. There is NOK 540m outstanding. The debt was sold in 2020.
The new issue will mature in September 2029.
Proceeds will also be used for general corporate purposes.
Arctic Securities, DNB Markets and SEB acted as joint bookrunners in the placement of the bond offering. Fearnley Securities and Pareto Securities acted as co-managers.
SFL further announced that it has notified Nordic Trustee AS it is exercising the call option to redeem all outstanding existing bonds.
The Nordic high-yield bond market is currently wide open for issuers, Pareto Securities said yesterday.
There is a high demand for shipping bonds from the investor community, Thomas Eriksen, head of credit research at Pareto Securities, said in an interview.
Eriksen sees “record high activity” and a total issuance volume of €20bn in 2024.
In August, SFL said in its earnings report that it had locked in $981m in loans and operating leases as it adds to growing acquisition power and refinances debt.
The deals included $700m in commitments for refinancing that will cover all its debt maturities over the next 12 months.
