Hermitage Offshore has won a new $132m credit facility from its core lenders after top shareholder Scorpio Services Holding agreed to purchase $15m in new equity, finance sources tell TradeWinds.
The new pact with lenders DNB and SEB will refinance the offshore vessel owner’s existing credit facility with the banks. The loan is to mature in December 2023.
Hermitage and Scorpio officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the agreement. But finance sources said a public announcement was expected imminently.
The move by Scorpio Services is said to satisfy a requirement that the owner of offshore support vessels raise $15m in new equity in order to secure a new loan. It had faced a 15 December deadline.
Scorpio has been building an increasing book in the OSV owner since becoming a white knight investor in what was then called Nordic American Offshore in December 2018 through a $5m private placement.
At that time Scorpio Group chief executive Emanuele Lauro took over as chairman and chief executive of NAO, replacing founder Herbjorn Hansson, the Norwegian tanker owner. Hansson retained an equity stake in the offshore vessel outfit.
From an initial stake around 20%, Scorpio insiders have amassed a position of 57.2% in Hermitage, which was renamed after Scorpio folded 13 of its privately owned OSVs into the listed company as part of a financial restructuring in April.
The Scorpio Services holding company last month bolstered the trading price of the New York-listed owner with share purchases that took its overall stake to some 9.4m shares.
Private Scorpio Services is owned primarily by Annalisa Lolli-Ghetti, the mother of Scorpio Group chief executive officer Emanuele Lauro.
