Ardmore Shipping is refinancing three eco-design medium-range (MR) tankers through sale-and-leaseback agreements.
The New York-listed company has agreed to sell the 50,000-dwt Ardmore Exporter and Ardmore Seavanguard (both built 2014) to a Chinese buyer in exchange for a seven-year lease.
It also plans to offload the 50,000-dwt Ardmore Engineer (built 2014) to a Japanese financier and then lease it back for 11 years.
Ardmore may rebuy each vessel at various stages prior to maturity.
Both transactions are expected to fund in December 2018 and, with other leasebacks announced in October, would have provided a cash balance of about $66m as of 30 September.
Ardmore said it expects to write off $1m in deferred finance fees for the two latest deals in the fourth quarter.
"With our conservative balance sheet, strong liquidity position and improving market conditions, we believe Ardmore is well positioned to create significant shareholder value in the anticipated cyclical recovery," chief executive Anthony Gurnee said.
