Scorpio Tankers has agreed to sell and lease back two Medium Range refined product tankers and two Long Range 2 tankers to an international financial institution for an aggregate liquidity boost of $42 million after repayment of outstanding debt, Scorpio said Monday.
Scorpio will bareboat charter-in the vessels for seven years, with purchasing options for the tonnage beginning at the end of the third year of each leaseback agreement, it said in a statement.
Scorpio has the obligation to purchase each vessel at the expiration of each agreement.
Scorpio did not name the other party in the deal in the statement. The company was not available for comment Monday.
So far the company has raised 52% or a total of $173.8 million of the $334 million in liquidity it is looking to raise, including this fourth such financing arrangement.
On April 25, Scorpio announced during its first-quarter 2018 earnings call it would enter a series of bank loans and sale leasebacks in an effort to raise liquidity.
The vessels in this latest round are the 2015-built Medium Range tankers STI Gramercy and STI Queen as well as the 2015-built LR2 tanker STI Oxford and the 2017-built LR2 STI Selatar.
In the three previous sale/leaseback agreements, Scorpio agreed to sell 15 MR tankers, the 2013-built STI Ville and STI Fontvieille, the 2014-built STI Aqua, STI Brooklyn, STI Dama, STI Milwaukee, STI Opera, STI Regina, STI Venere, STI Virtus, and the 2015-built STI Bronx, STI Brooklyn, STI Manhattan, STI Seneca and STI Tribeca.
In addition, the company entered into sale/leaseback agreements for two LR2 refined product tankers -- the STI Rose (2015) and the STI Rambla (2017).
Scorpio currently owns or finance leases 109 refined product tankers: 38 LR2 tankers, 12 LR1 tankers, 45 MR tankers and 14 Handymax tankers.
