Genco Shipping & Trading has taken a further step in strengthening its balance sheet after closing a five-year loan that will lower its finance costs.
New York-listed Genco says it has finalized a $108m loan, first announced to be developing last month and led by Credit Agricole.
The cash will be used to help fund the six second-hand ships the company has purchased this summer.
Genco anticipates drawing down around $51.75m by the end of the week to partially finance three vessels delivered to date.
The ships are the capesizes Genco Endeavour and Genco Resolute (both built 2015) and the 61,000-dwt Genco Weatherly (built 2014).
Genco says the new facility, combined with a $460m refinancing anncounced in June, will lower its weighted average cost of debt by 100 bp com.
News of the new credit facility first emerged in mid-July when the shipowner said it had received a commitment for the facility to be led by Credit Agricole.
Genco said at the time that under the terms of the new facility, borrowings would bear interest at Libor plus 250 bp through to the end of September 2019.
It will then flip to a range of 225 to 275 bp, dependent upon Genco’s ratio of total net debt and profitability at the time.
As TradeWinds has reported Genco is buying ships at a time when further cash will be generated from the sale of 15 older vessels.
Three of those have already been sold and the remainder are likely to follow by the end of the year, according to chief executive John Wobensmith.
