Costamare revealed on Thursday a new bank loan that helps it refinance a considerable part of its debt and its container ship fleet.
Twelve leading banks from the US, Europe and Asia took part in the syndicated loan with a volume reaching up to $500m, US-listed Costamare said.
Most of them were lenders that the company has not had business with to date, chief financial officer Gregory Zikos said.
Costamare expects to fully draw down the entire amount of the debt by the end of June.
It did not reveal details of the borrowing costs, other than to say the syndicated loan was “significantly oversubscribed”. The loan was concluded at a “competitive cost” that “significantly” reduces its overall cost of funding.
Proactive move
With a tiny fraction of its total $2.6bn of debt maturing in 2022, Costamare was under no pressure to refinance existing debt.
Zikos characterised the $500m refinancing as a “proactive” move that will help roll over the existing indebtedness of 17 of the 76 container ships that the company has on the water.
“The expected net cash inflow after repayment of the current debt obligations [of the 17 ships] is about $200m,” he added.
According to its latest annual filings, the weighted average interest rate on Costamare’s debt as of the end of last year stood at 2.77%.
Costamare is not the only shipping company to announce a major refinancing this week.
On Wednesday, John Fredriksen-controlled VLGC owner Avance Gas announced it had clinched a $555m deal with seven unnamed banks that covers nine of its 13 operational ships.
The deal helped Avance Gas to push out maturity for most of its debt from 2024 to 2028.
