Scorpio Tankers pulled the trigger on a sale-leaseback again with a seven-ship deal.
The spree of such deals now has reached a total of 28 ships in the fleet of the world's largest product tanker owner.
The Emanuele Lauro-led company says the deal will cover six medium-range (MR) product tankers - STI San Antonio, STI Benicia, STI Mayfair and STI St. Charles (all 52,000-dwt and built 2014), and the STI Yorkville and STI Duchessa (both 50,000-dwt and built 2014).
The 110,000-dwt STI Alexis (built 2014) is also included in the deal.
The New York-listed Scorpio says the vessels were sold to an "international financial institution." After repayment of outstanding debt, the company's liquidity is expected to increase $42m.
Scorpio will bareboat charter-in the vessels for seven years. Repurchase options begin at the end of the third year of the charter, with a repurchase obligation at the end of the charter.
At least for the vessels in the recent transactions were financed through a 2016 credit facility arranged by ABN Amro, Nordea and SEB. The 2016 credit facility had an outstanding balance of some $190m at the end of March 2018.
The STI Duchessa was originally financed through a credit facility with HSH Nordbank with $15m outstanding at the end of March 2018. The STI Mayfair was financed through the Korea Trade Insurance Corp credit facility which has $239m outstanding. The STI Alexis was financed through a DVB Bank credit facility with some $76.9m outstanding.
