US-listed Scorpio Tankers is continuing to free itself of sale-and-leaseback debt with more ship repurchases.
The Emanuele Lauro-led company said on Tuesday it had given notice to exercise its purchase options on the 49,700-dwt MR tanker STI Westminster (built 2015) and four handysizes built in 2014: the 38,700-dwt STI Brixton, STI Comandante, STI Pimlico and STI Finchley.
The purchases are expected to take place in the first half of 2024 and will reduce debt by $61.1m.
The ships are all owned by China's CMB Financial Leasing and are worth about $180m combined, according to VesselsValue.
The purchase option prices are not known.
Scorpio also said it was selling the 50,000-dwt MR STI Tribeca (built 2015) for $39.1m to an unnamed third party.
VesselsValue has a price of $38.9m on the tanker, which was bought back from CMB Financial Leasing in December at an unknown price.
The ship was chartered to Trafigura for three years in 2022 at $21,000 per day.
The STI Tribeca’s lease carried interest at Libor plus 3.2%.
Scorpio Tankers controls 111 ships. The cash-rich company has been enjoying strong product tanker markets, allowing it to reacquire vessels.
Big spend on previous purchases
In December, the owner said it was repaying debt or lease financing tied to 13 ships over the coming four months.
These included three 2013-built leased MR vessels costing $29.1m in total, and four more 2012-built MRs being reacquired for $29m.
Three handymaxes dating from 2014, financed as part of a Prudential credit facility, will also be brought back under ownership. Repayments of this debt were set to take place in January at a total cost of $33.7m.
Then there were three 2015-built MRs financed as part of a 2021 Taiping & Sinopec Financial Leasing leaseback deal.
The ships will be bought back in March for $45.6m.
Scorpio had revealed in October that it was repurchasing 22 vessels from financiers.
