Altera Shuttle Tankers (AST) has engaged banks for a bond issue of $100m-$150m as it posted a fourth-quarter loss.
The UK-based subsidiary of US group Altera Infrastructure is considering a four-year senior unsecured bond.
It has mandated Arctic Securities, Danske Bank, DNB Markets, Nordea and SEB as joint bookrunners and Credit Agricole as co-manager to arrange bond investor meetings starting on 23 February.
Net proceeds will be used to refinance existing debt and general corporate purposes.
The shuttle tanker owner may offer a partial buyback of one or both outstanding bonds in conjunction with the issue.
Last November, it repurchased $1.5m of its $180m four-year senior unsecured bonds that mature in December 2025, which were issued in December 2021.
AST posted a fourth-quarter loss of $20.4m compared with a $28.3m profit for the same period in 2022.
Revenue fell to $111.1m from $165.4m.
It said lower reimbursable bunker purchases, four vessels executing their mid-life dry docking and upgrades contributed to the revenue decrease.
In December, AST agreed with PetroChina to use the 154,200-dwt Sertanejo Spirit (built 2013) on a five-year firm time charter contract in Brazil, beginning in March.
As of 31 December 2023, the company’s fleet consisted of 18 owned shuttle tankers and one chartered-in vessel.
One of the owned tankers is under conversion to a floating storage and offloading unit.
