Euronav has followed up a $186m sale-and-leaseback deal with a new $410m revolving credit facility to refinance 11 VLCCs.
The new loan matures in 2023 and carries a rate of Libor plus a margin of 2.25%.
Hugo De Stoop, chief financial officer of Euronav, said: “This new facility will provide a lot of flexibility for Euronav.
“It is a full revolving facility replacing a term loan, it has a lower margin than the facility it is refinancing and it has a much longer maturity.
“The leverage is also more attractive and provides additional liquidity to the company.”
Euronav explained it intends to use the loan to refinance a $500m secured credit facility from 2014.
A consortium of banks have worked on the facility, including Nordea Bank Norge, ABN AMRO, Danish Ship Finance, DNB UK, and ING Bank.
De Stoop added: “We believe that in today’s market bank loans are the best way to create shareholder’s value for the long term.
“The margin, the structure and the fact that it was 2.2 times oversubscribed are a token of our solid relationship with a stable group of supporting lenders.”
As TradeWinds reported yesterday, Euronav entered into a $186m sale-and-leaseback deal with Wafra Capital Partners, a move that freed up around $100m in additional cash.
