Norwegian shipowner Ocean Yield has added $70m to its cash pile through the sale of a new bond in Oslo.
The Oslo-listed sale-and-leaseback player, owned by US private equity giant KKR, said the unsecured issue is worth NOK 750m ($70.5m).
The notes carry a coupon of the Norwegian interbank rate (Nibor) plus 3.95%, much lower than the existing series.
“The bond issue attracted strong interest and was well over-subscribed,” Ocean Yield said.
Pricing below the initial talk of between 4% and 4.25% above Nibor “demonstrates strong interest for shipping bonds and a wide-open Norwegian bond market”, Fearnley Securities said.
Net proceeds from the four-year bond issue will go towards refinancing of outstanding debt and general corporate purposes.
Arctic Securities, Danske Bank, Nordea Bank and SEB were joint lead managers for the transaction.
Ocean Yield held a series of meetings with investors this week to assess interest in a sale.
It has said it may now offer buybacks of two earlier bond series: a $125m perpetual tranche that carries interest of the London interbank rate (Libor) plus 6.75%; and a NOK 750m issue that expires in December 2024 at Nibor plus 7.25%.
Ocean Yield later said it had repurchased NOK 292.5m of the Norwegian issue and $37.7m of the US-denominated series.
Earlier issue repurchases
Ocean Yield has already bought back NOK 20m of this second series.
In January, the company said it was splashing more of its cash to redeem a bond issue due in May.
It said it was exercising a call option to buy back the NOK 750m tranche.
The redemption price was at 100% of par.
The bonds carried interest of Nibor plus 3.65%.
The company had $122m in cash at year-end.
Already this year, it has increased several loan facilities by $55m.
Net profit for the fourth quarter was $21.1m, against $17.9m in 2021, while revenue grew to $55.4m from $47.4m.
Earnings for the whole of 2022 were $91.2m.
