Greece's Seanergy Maritime Holdings has more than halved its finance costs for one of its capesize bulkers.
The Nasdaq-listed company said it is tapping a major Asian bank for a $15m loan to replace a facility from US alternative finance group EnTrust Global, of which $14.6m remains outstanding.
The cash is secured by, and refinances, the 170,100-dwt Geniuship (built 2010).
The EnTrust finance would have cost 10.5% in interest over the next three-and-a-half years, while the new facility has been fixed at Libor plus 3.5%.
The Asian loan has a five-year term.
It will amortise through four quarterly instalments of $530,000 followed by 16 quarterly payments of $385,000.
"The significantly lower interest rate, as well as the reduced quarterly repayments agreed for 2023 onwards, will further improve the break-even rates of the underlying vessel," the company said.
Interest savings are expected to be $900,000 for 2022 and $500,000 per year from 2023 to 2025.
Financing costs to be cut further
The deal brings Seanergy's total debt to $243m, of which $21.7m comprises convertible notes.
Cash on hand is $45m.
Chief executive Stamatis Tsantanis said: "As part of our continuous efforts to further improve our strong cash flow, we have agreed another successful refinancing for an existing capesize vessel."
"Consistent with our conservative approach on leverage, we aim in achieving more competitive pricing and overall terms of the loan without increasing the debt on the vessel," he added.
Tsantanis reiterated that Seanergy remains committed to its strategy of cutting finance costs with more new loan deals, share buybacks or debt repayments.
Earlier in December, the company spent $16.6m on share and note buybacks to stop its stock being diluted.
Fearnley Securities analysts Peder Nicolai Jarlsby, Erik Gabriel Hovi and Ulrik Mannhart calculated that the buybacks eliminated potential dilution by 17.5m shares.
