Nasdaq-listed Navios Maritime Containers has refinanced existing debt as it revealed shrinking profit for the first quarter.
The owner has borrowed $30.2m in order to pay off an outstanding balance of $22.9m.
The facility is repayable in 18 equal consecutive quarterly instalments of $0.7m each, with a $17.5m balloon payment on the last repayment date in July 2023.
Interest is Libor plus 325 basis points.
The company now has no debt maturities until 2022.
Net profit shrank to $53,000 to 31 March, from $3.04m in 2018.
Time charter rates fell, mainly reflecting the expiration of a number of its legacy contracts.
The rate per day declined from $15,259 to $12,217 year-on-year.
There was also a $2.2m increase in interest expenses and finance costs related to the funding of new vessels.
This was offset by a $3.5m decrease in depreciation and amortisation costs.
Revenue grew to $31.83m against $29.91m due to the increase in the number of vessels operating.
Frangou upbeat
CEO Angeliki Frangou said she was pleased with the results.
"In a little more than two years, Navios Containers grew its fleet to 30 containerships, acquiring the fleet for a price close to the related scrap value," she added.
"Most recently, Navios Containers acquired two 2011-built 10,000-teu containerships for $105m, reflecting a 30% discount to newbuild parity.
"These containerships are on long-term time charters at around $27,000 per day that should generate cumulative EBITDA of $35.2m.”
During the quarter, the company entered into indexed floating-rate time charters for two 4,250-teu units through to December 2020 and July 2021.
The rates will be calculated according to the ConTex assessment over a 12-month period.
"The indexed charters provide us with long-term employment for our vessels while allowing us to benefit from a potential improvement in charter rates," it said.
Navios Containers has chartered-out 55.7% and 15.6% of available days for the remaining nine months of 2019 and for 2020, respectively, which are expected to generate $75.2m and $44.5m in revenue.
The average expected daily contracted charter-out rate for the fleet is $16,655 and $26,029 over those periods.
