Teekay Tankers has sold eight ships to new lessors after a September deal to buy six of the vessels out of their leases in a sweeping refinance.
The New York-listed tanker owner, a spin-off of Vancouver's Teekay Corp, revealed the deals as it reported a deeper third-quarter loss that was not as bad as analysts had predicted.
The company said it spent $129m to buy six tankers out of their lease financing deals during the three-month period.
Teekay Tankers then struck a $73m deal to sell two of those ships and another two unencumbered vessels and lease all four back.
After those September transactions, Teekay Tankers started November by selling the remaining four of the repurchased sextet in another leaseback transaction.
The vessels and lessors were not named.
Chief executive Kevin Mackay said the deals brought interest savings of $11m in the first year alone, and they leave the company with $209m in liquidity.
The deals came as Teekey Tankers reported a net loss of $52.1m for the third quarter, compared with a $44.4m loss reported in the same period of last year.
But the adjusted loss per share of $1.54 beat analysts' expectations of $1.62.
Revenue sank to nearly $116m from $170m a year earlier.
Historically weak spot rates
"During the third quarter of 2021, we experienced historically weak crude spot tanker rates due to ongoing Opec+ production cuts resulting from reduced oil demand related to the Covid-19 pandemic, inventory drawdowns as a result of a backwardated oil price structure, and higher bunker fuel costs," Mackay said.
| Quarter | Q3 2021 | Q3 2020 |
| Revenue | $116m | $170m |
| Voyage expenses | $78.3m | $57.8m |
| Loss from operations | $41.5m | $29.1m |
| Net loss | $52.1m | $44.4m |
He said the fourth quarter has so far shown a modest improvement as Opec+ gradually opened the taps, but some 4.6m barrels of supply cuts have not been rolled back.
The potential for a seasonal spike this winter provides some hope in the near term, as high coal and natural gas prices help boost oil use for power generation.
Further out, Mackay struck a more optimistic tone.
"Although the near-term outlook is uncertain due to Covid-19, we believe many of the leading indicators for a tanker market recovery continue to improve, including increases in Opec+ and non-Opec+ production, rapidly declining global oil inventories, which are well below the five-year average, and positive tanker fleet supply fundamentals as reflected in a low orderbook, increased scrapping and a very limited amount of new tanker orders," he said.
In the third quarter, the tanker owner's loss from operations grew to $41.5m from $29.1m a year earlier.
The bottom line loss brought the nine-month red ink to nearly $203m, reversing a $161m profit in the same period of 2020.
Meanwhile, parent Teekay Corp reported a net loss of $2.9m, slimmer than the $35.4m booked in the same period of 2020.
That allowed it to keep its nine-month result in the black, with a profit of nearly $25.2m reversing $63.5m in losses in the first three months of last year.
The New York-listed outfit will be down to just one listed spin-off when it completes an effort to sell out of Teekay LNG.
