New York-listed Diana Shipping has been able to refinance outstanding Norwegian bonds with a new Oslo issue at a lower interest cost.
The Greek dry bulk owner said on Tuesday that it is paying 8.38% on the $125m issuance of senior unsecured five-year notes after the deal was oversubscribed.
The deal takes out a similar bond issued in 2018 and maturing in 2023 that was priced at 9.5%.
Arctic Securities and Nordea Bank led the deal as joint bookrunners.
The Semiramis Paliou-led owner said that in conjunction with the offering, it has bought back $78.3m of the existing bonds, and will use proceeds from the new sale to refinance the rest and for general corporate purposes.
Diana is based in Athens and its fleet consists of 37 bulkers — from panamaxes to newcastlemaxes.
On 21 May, the company said it had $411m in long-term debt as of the end of the first quarter, net of deferred financing costs.
While Diana is getting a more attractive rate on the new bonds, it still is towards the higher end of shipping issuances done in Oslo in 2021 for senior unsecured notes.
Greek containership owner Danaos came in slightly higher with an 8.5% rate on a $300m issue in February, according to data from DNB Markets.
More recent deals saw SFL Corp price $150m in notes at 7.25% on 29 April, containership lessor Seaspan Corp sell $300m at 6.5% on 15 April and boxship giant Hapag-Lloyd issue $300m at 2.5% on 25 March.
The company said the bonds will trade on the Oslo Stock Exchange, with the offering expected to close on 22 June.
