Greece’s Okeanis Eco Tankers has secured period cover for two of its suezmax newbuildings from an unnamed national oil company.
The Alafouzos family-controlled shipowner said it had secured three-year charters for the 157,971-dwt Nissos Sifnos and Nissos Sikinos (both built 2020).
The ships are expected to generate cumulative Ebitda of $22.6m per vessel in a deal that will recoup 80% of the vessels’ equity over the duration of the contract.
Currently under construction at South Korea’s Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, the tankers are due to be delivered in September.
Oslo-listed Okeanis has also secured a $103m loan from the Export-Import Bank of Korea, the BNK Busan Bank and the BNK Kyongnam Bank for the financing of the newbuildings. This will give the two ships a daily cash break-even rate expected to be under $21,000 per day.
Other tankers refinanced
Okeanis said it has also refinanced two scrubber-fitted suexmax tankers — the 159,159-dwt Kimolos and 159,221-dwt Folegandros (both built 2018).
Dutch bank ABN Amro has agreed to finance the Kimolos for $42.2m in a transaction that will result in a $2.55m reduction in leverage and a reduction in the vessel's daily cash break-even rate of $2,000, to $18,500 per day.
French bank BNP Paribas has agreed to refinance the Folegandros for $39.2m in a deal that will result in an increase in leverage of $650,000 and a reduction in the vessel's daily cash break-even rate of $500, to $18,600 per day.
Okeanis also disclosed its VLCC fleet earned an average of $96,000 to $98,500 per day in the second quarter of this year. This takes the year-to-date average to between $90,700 and $91,700.
In the third quarter, Okeanis said it had fixed 75% of its VLCCs on time charters at $43,100 per day and 15.5% of its VLCCs on spot charters at $51,200 per day. Just under 10% of its available VLCC days remain unfixed in the third quarter.
In contrast, 79% of its suezmax spot capacity remains unfixed in the third quarter. About 25% of suezmax spot days have been fixed at $51,200 per day and just 11.2% of suezmax time charter days have been fixed at $43,100 per day.
Okeanis is due to release its unaudited financial results for the second quarter on 14 August, as well as provide further details regarding its capital return policy.
Ahead of expectations
Clarksons Platou Securities analyst Frode Morkedal said the second quarter Ebitda guidance was slightly better than expected at between $53m and $54m.
"Achieved freight rates were better than expected, particularly for VLCCs, but operating costs were also higher," he said.
For the third quarter, the company’s spot bookings to date indicate Ebitda of around $32m versus Clarksons Platou's current estimate of $27m.
The investment bank is assessing net asset value at $11.80 per share. "The implied VLCC prompt-resale valuation at today’s stock price is $76m, which we think is a very attractive valuation. With one of the most aggressive dividend payout models, and a communicated NAV discount control strategy, we reiterate our buy rating," it said.
Clarksons Platou believes that in the near term, OPEC+ is scheduled to add 2m barrels per day of oil production, which could add 2.6% to tanker demand.
"The problem for the tanker market is that floating storage is still at 9% of the fleet," Morkedal said.
"'Normal' floating storage (including dedicated storage ships such as FSOs and the Iranian fleet) should be 4%. Hence there is some 5% of the fleet that is likely to come back into the market over the next six months."
He sees utilisation slipping quarter on quarter despite the trade improvement from increased OPEC+ output.
"That said, we believe the correction will be short-lived and not the start of a new downturn," Morkedal added.
