Stolt-Nielsen has succeeded in selling a bond worth NOK 1.25bn ($131m) in an Oslo market many had thought closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Norwegian chemical tanker owner said a deal had been sealed on Tuesday to place a senior unsecured issue maturing on 29 June, 2023.
The bond carries a coupon of the three-month Norwegian interbank rate (Nibor) plus 4.5%. Nibor was quoted at 0.36% on Wednesday.
The shipowner said the transaction was "significantly oversubscribed", indicating strong investor appetite.
It immediately swapped the new bond into US dollar obligations at a fixed interest rate of 5.19%.
Together with the sale, Stolt-Nielsen said it bought back NOK 525m of the NOK 1.45bn seven-year SNI05 notes maturing in March 2021. These have a margin of 3.35%.
Other proceeds from the potential bond issue will be used for general corporate purposes.
Danske Bank, DNB Markets, Nordea and Swedbank acted as joint lead managers for the bond issue.
Oslo interest prices rise
The deal also shows that debt costs in Oslo have risen since February, when Stolt-Nielsen raised $140m by selling a bond at Nibor plus 3.65%.
However, the company swapped this into US dollars at a fixed interest rate of 5.44%, which was lower than Tuesday's rate.
The tanker owner had said on Monday that it was testing the waters with a series of fixed-income investor meetings.
This month, American Shipping Co brought in financial advisors to help it refinance a bond issue worth $220m.
The unsecured debt was sold by the Oslo-listed shipowner's American Tanker subsidiary and does not mature until February 2022.
Arctic Securities, Clarksons Platou Securities, Pareto Securities and SEB have been tasked with seeking new sources of cash.
Odfjell is also trying to refinance an outstanding $82.5m of bonds due in the first quarter of 2021.
The chemical tanker owner believes a new bond issue may not be possible, so it is considering refinancing debt-free ships and is talking to banks about fresh liquidity.
Norwegian shipowner Ocean Yield's chief executive Lars Solbakken told analysts in May that its strong position as a vessel sale-and-leaseback company is partly to do with banks being more conservative, and partly because it is also seeing increased demand as a result of the bond market "being more or less closed for shipping at the moment".
Stolt-Nielsen said in April that it had just over $500m in available liquidity at the end of the first quarter. This allowed it to pay off an April bond maturity in cash.
