Navios Maritime Acquisition has made good on a promise to refinance debt on four of its products tankers through a leaseback deal.

The Greek tanker owner first tipped intentions on the deal at its earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2017 in January, saying talks were at an advanced stage.

Navios Maritime Acquisition now indicates in its annual report that it sealed the transaction on 31 March.

The six-year deal matures in March 2024 and carries an interest rate of 305 basis points above the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), the filing indicates.

Neither the vessels affected nor the counter-party are identified in the disclosure.

The arrangement will refinance $71.5m on an existing facility, the company indicates. Navios Maritime Acquisition has a purchase obligation at the end of the least term.

The facility is repayable in 24 consecutive quarterly installments of $1.5m each, with a $35.8m balloon payment required on the last repayment date.

The sale also had accounting implications, the owner states.

“The transaction is expected to be accounted for as a failed sale and leaseback transaction and result in a finance lease,” Navios Maritime Acquisition reports.

“As a result of the refinancing, as of December 31, 2017, an amount of $32.8 million was reclassified from ‘Current portion of long-term debt, net of deferred finance cost’ to ‘Long term debt, net of current portion, premium and net of deferred finance cost.’”

Covenant terms require minimum liquidity of $1m per vessel, net worth greater than $125m and total liabilities divided by value of total assets to be lower than 80%.

The original financing had been scheduled to come due later this year and in early 2019.

As of 31 December, Navios Maritime Acquisition had 10 separate lenders extending a total of $1.08bn in debt.

One of those facilities is for $71.5m — the amount taken out in the leaseback deal. It is led by Commerzbank of Germany in combination with Alpha Bank of Greece and Credit Agricole of France.

Angeliki Frangou-led Navios Maritime Acquisition operates 36 vessels — eight VLCCs, 26 product tankers and two chemical carriers.

The New York-listed owner reported a net loss of $12m in the final quarter of 2017 against a profit of $18.1m for the corresponding period in 2016. The per-share loss of $0.08 per share missed analysts’ consensus expectations by $0.04.