Norway's Hunter Group is looking forward to lower costs after it took back ownership of two VLCCs it sold to John Fredriksen's SFL Corp in September last year.
The 300,000-dwt Hunter Atla and Hunter Saga (built 2019) were delivered on Tuesday for a combined purchase price of $117.8m following the declaration of its buyback option.
At the same time it has drawn down $100.4m of an extended loan facility with Danske Bank, DNB, Nordea and SEB announced in June.
"The transaction will reduce the company's leverage, cost of capital and cash breakeven levels," Hunter said.
In May, Hunter said it was buying back three VLCCs sold to SFL.
The company, backed by investor Arne Fredly, is expected to declare the buyback option on sistership Hunter Laga (built 2019) later this year.
Costs to come down
SFL paid $60m each for the trio while chartering the DSME-built vessels back over five years, with purchase options attached.
The new banking facility is an accordion addition to Hunter's existing $220m loan with Danske Bank, DNB, Nordea and SEB.
It carries interest of Libor plus 275 basis points.
Hunter had already drawn $55m in connection with the March delivery of Hunter Freya.
It expects breakeven to come down to $20,500 per day, which Fearnley Securities has said is $5,000 lower than before.
The deal with SFL caused Hunter to cancel a $420m senior secured term loan for the ships that it announced last May.
This had financed 60% of the construction cost.
Hunter reported net profit of $11.7m for the first quarter, while revenue was $20.78m.
The year-ago figures were close to zero as it had no ships at that time.
Hunter Atla and Hunter Laga started charter deals in March and April.
Hunter Freya missed its time charter delivery window due to port delays and was still in the Tankers International scrubber pool in May.
