Imperial Petroleum, a US-listed owner of eight tankers and four bulkers, has taken advantage of robust shipping markets to repay much of its debt ahead of time.
The Harry Vafias-led company said in a statement on Monday that it has recently repaid “early and in full” an outstanding $23.2m from a loan with DNB Bank.
This slashes the company’s total debt in one stroke by about a third, to $45m.
Imperial’s DNB loan had been secured with first priority mortgages against half the company’s tanker fleet — the 115,000-dwt aframax Stealth Berana (built 2010) and three product tankers: the 47,000-dwt Clean Thrasher and Magic Wand (both built 2008), and the 46,000-dwt Clean Sanctuary (built 2009).
Following the early repayment of the loan, the company is now net-debt free and eight of its 12 vessels are unencumbered by debt.
As Imperial’s fleet grew and markets moved in its favour, the company saw its net income soar to $29.5m last year from a net loss of $3.6m in 2021, its first year of operations.
Robust tanker markets also helped boost its value. In a market update released on 27 March, the company estimated its net asset value at just shy of $340m — more than eight times its market capitalisation.
“The NAV, which includes total outstanding cash of $142.2m, is increasing daily on account of the record net cashflow contributed by our tankers,” Imperial said in its statement late last month.
