Safe Bulkers Agrees to Amend Term Loan Facility
Posted by Michelle Howard
July 18, 2016
Safe Bulkers, Inc., an international provider of marine drybulk transportation services, has announced that the company has agreed with Danish Ship Finance, to amend certain financial covenants and terms to its existing credit facility with an outstanding balance of US $40.0 million.
Following this amendment the term loan facility contains the following:
- The total consolidated liabilities of the company divided by its total consolidated assets charter inclusive must not exceed 90% until and including year-end 2017 and 85% from 2018 onwards.
- The ratio of the company’s EBITDA1 to its interest expense must be not less than 2.0:1 on a trailing 12 month basis, applicable from 2018 onwards.
- The consolidated net worth of the company, defined as total consolidated assets charter inclusive less total consolidated liabilities is waived until and including year-end 2017 subject to a minimum fleet size of 30 vessels and not less than US $150.0 million from 2018 onwards.
- The aggregate market value of the vessels under the facility divided by the aggregate outstanding loan value must exceed 110% until year-end 2017 and 120% from 2018 onwards.
The old and the new repayment schedules are presented in the below table:
Repayment Schedule on annual basis in US$ million
2016 remaining 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Total
Old schedule 1.2 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7 25.3 40.0
New schedule 3.4 0.0 0.0 3.2 3.2 3.2 27.0 40.0
Dr. Loukas Barmparis, President of the company, said: “The agreement with Danish Ship Finance is the fourth in a row which provides for alignment of financial covenants and deferral of about $3.4 million of debt originally payable until 2018, to years after 2019. With this agreement, the amended facilities represent about 60% of our debt, excluding sale and lease back financing arrangements and debt from State institutions.”
