Seanergy Maritime Holdings and spin-off United Maritime have locked in $92.8m in financing deals that will refinance four leases.
New York-listed Seanergy said it reached three deals with Avic International Shipping totalling $58.3m.
The funds will allow the Greek bulker owner to refinance leases on the 181,300-dwt Hellaship (built 2012) and 181,700-dwt Patriotship (built 2010).
Also included in the Avic financings is a sale-and-leaseback deal for the 181,400-dwt Iconship (built 2013), which the Stamatis Tsantanis-led company bought for a reported $34m in February, when it was trading as the Kinokawa Maru.
TradeWinds reported in June that Avic had helped finance the ship, but details were not available at the time.
All three ships have been sold to Avic and chartered back on a five-year bareboat contract, and Seanergy has options to repurchase them at any time over the course of the lease.
When the leases mature, Seanergy is required to buy the bulkers back at $31.5m.
The loans carry an annual interest rate based on the three-month Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) plus a 2.55% margin.
That is 1.2 percentage points cheaper than the previous financing for the Hellasship and Patriotship.
Seanergy will pay four quarterly instalments of $2.1m followed by 16 instalments of $1.2m.
The loans were announced in a quarterly earnings report in which Seanergy said it had $38.2m in cash and long-term debt of $248m, net of deferred charges, against a book fleet value of $466m.
United Maritime, which spun off from Seanergy two years ago, also struck new finance deals.
The company reached an $18m lease agreement with an undisclosed Japanese financier that allowed it to exercise a purchase option on its 78,000-dwt Synthesea (built 2015), a panamax bulker.
After buying the Synthesea for $17.1m to close out its previous bareboat contract, Seanergy sold it to the new lessor and chartered it back in.
The new lease comes with an interest rate of 2.7% above the three-month SOFR.
Under the seven-year contract, United will pay 84 monthly instalments of $100,000 each.
The company, also led by Tsantanis, will have continuous options to repurchase the Synthesea starting on the lease’s two-year anniversary.
At the end of the contract, United will be able to buy the ship back for $6.5m.
United went to a Taiwanese lender to secure $16.5m in new finance for the 78,200-dwt Chrisea (built 2013), another panamax bulker.
The deal allowed the New York-listed company to exercise the $12.4m purchase option on the ship’s bareboat charter.
The five-year loan facility will require United to pay $400,000 per quarter until a final balloon payment of $8.5m.
The loan carries an interest rate of 2.6% plus the three-month SOFR.
United finished the quarter with $7.7m in cash and $90.3m of long-term debt and leases, net of deferred financing cost. Its fleet’s book value stood at nearly $148m.
