The latest liquidity temperature check on New York-listed Scorpio Tankers gives the impression that an outright sale of some vessels could be on the cards.

Scorpio management led by president Robert Bugbee told investors for the second time in a week on Tuesday that a straight sale of tankers could be a liquidity lever as the owner seeks a bridge to a fully recovered tanker market.

Sales would be a preferable alternative to a dilutive equity issue, Bugbee said in an investor session moderated by Jefferies lead shipping analyst Randy Giveans.

At the same time, Bugbee suggested Scorpio's long campaign of generating incremental liquidity by refinancing debt on its fleet of some 140 vessels does have its limits.

Jefferies lead shipping analyst Randy Giveans (left) quizzed Scorpio Tankers president Robert Bugbee in Tuesday's investor session. Photo: Johnathon Henninger/TradeWinds Events

"We have 140-odd vessels and we have a high enough S&P market," Bugbee told Giveans. "You're more likely now to see a balance, where you have refinancings and sale-leasebacks on the one side and outright sale of assets on the other.

"We don't want to take the average leverage up that much further. That's a sort of last resort. It won't affect the operating leverage of the company to sell a few ships."

While Bugbee also mentioned asset sales in a conversation with Clarksons Platou Securities on Wednesday, there seemed a slightly stronger emphasis in the Jefferies session, which came a day after Scorpio had secured $28m in incremental liquidity on sale-leasebacks of two LR2 tankers.

Much of the give-and-take with Giveans and investors had to do with marginalising a potential equity raise as a viable solution in a protracted trough market for tankers.

Still, when pressed by Giveans on the mathematical chances of Scorpio doing such a raise within 2022, Bugbee baulked at giving out a number.

"You're not going to put a percentage possibility on things," Bugbee said. "No executive is going to eradicate something in full when you could always have some crazy black-swan event.

"But the probability is much less than the perceived probability in 2021, when we have not raised any equity. We have more cash. We have a much higher value of ships. You have a spot and time charter market that is much healthier coming into this holiday season than the last holiday season."

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Bugbee's twin investor appearances sought to damp down speculation of a stock sale with shares trading below 40% of net asset value by his estimation, especially in light of commentary from Deutsche Bank analyst Amit Mehrotra that a raise could be forthcoming.

Mehrotra was underwhelmed by Scorpio's sale-leaseback announcement.

"We believe these types of announcements and actions underscore the pressure on the company's cash flows and serves to reinforce our view of very real risks of dilutive equity financing," he told clients.

But Scorpio also drew support and a "buy" rating from analysts at DNB Markets, who projected a 12-month liquidity runway in a flat market.

"To breach its minimum cash covenant, we believe 2022 would need to underperform 2021 despite already seeing improved underlying oil demand and stock draws materialising, and evidently the best freight market for MRs since August 2020," they wrote.