Navios Acquisition Secures USD 125m Loan
Owner and operator of tanker vessels Navios Acquisition has entered into a term loan facility of up to USD 125 million with Deutsche Bank AG Filiale Deutschlandgeschäft and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB to finance fleet additions.
The company said that the loan will be used to finance the purchase price of the Nave Spherical, a 2009-built, 297,188 dwt VLCC and the refinancing of the existing facility with Deutsche Bank AG Filiale Deutschlandgeschäft for four MR2 product tankers. The loan matures in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Nave Spherical was acquired by Navios in a two-vessel deal that also included the Nave Photon, a 2008-built, 297,395 dwt VLCC, purchased from an unaffiliated third party, for an aggregate purchase price of USD 133 million.
The Nave Spherical was delivered on November 6, 2015. The vessel has been chartered out to an unnamed counterparty for two years at a rate of USD 41,475 net per day.
The Nave Photon is expected to be delivered within 2015 and is expected to be financed through a new credit facility and cash from the balance sheet.
Navious reported revenue increase for the three months ended September 30, 2015 by 12.1% amounting to USD 77.7 million, when compared to figures from 2014. The increase was mainly attributable to the increase in revenue following the acquisition of six vessels since July 2014, and the profit sharing increase by USD 9.5 million. The increase was partially mitigated by USD 22.9 million due to the sale of four VLCCs in November 2014 and two VLCCs in June 2015.
Revenue for the nine month period ended September 30, 2015 increased by USD 44.2 million or 23.0% to USD 236.7 million, as compared to USD 192.5 million for the same period of 2014.
Angeliki Frangou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Navios Acquisition said that he is very pleased with the company’s record results.
“Navios Acquisition declared a dividend of USD 0.05 per share for the quarter and repurchased approximately 2.5 million shares of common stock under our share repurchase program. We also acquired two VLCCs for USD 133.0 million. We are conservatively using our cash flow to satisfy a mix of corporate priorities, including de-levering the balance sheet, returning capital to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends and opportunistic growth,” Frangou continued.
Navios Acquisition currently owns 39 vessels; eight are VLCCs, 27 are product tankers and four are chemical tankers of which 38 are currently on-the-water with one vessel expected to be delivered within 2015.
As of November 9, 2015, Navios Acquisition had contracted 99.8% and 51.5% of its available days on a charter-out basis for 2015 and 2016, respectively, expecting to generate revenues of approximately to USD 288.3 million and USD 136.8 million, respectively. The average contractual daily charter-out rate for the fleet is expected to be USD 21,250 and USD 18,891 for 2015 and 2016, respectively.
