The amendments to the Bond Terms will include, among other things, the release of the existing security, including the ship mortgages over the vessels P. Monterey and P. Sophia, so that the Bonds become senior unsecured obligations of the Company; the removal of the use of proceeds restrictions upon sale of a collateral vessel; and an increase of the minimum liquidity covenant from US$20.0 million to US$30.0 million. The Company agreed to pay a one-time amendment fee of 0.325% of the US$150.0 million nominal amount of the Bonds. The amendments to the Bond Terms will be documented by an amendment and restatement agreement to be entered into between the Company and the Bond Trustee.

Commenting on the amendments, Andreas Michalopoulos, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, stated:

“We wish to thank our bondholders for their continued support. The approval of our bondholders will effectively change the structure of our Bonds from partly secured to unsecured. This change reflects the significant improvement in the credit quality of our Company in the 12 months since the inaugural issue of the Bonds.

“During that time, we added four vessels to our fleet with 3-to-7-year charter contracts, and sold our two oldest vessels. As a result, we increased the size of our fleet by two vessels, reduced the fleetwide average age to six years and doubled our contract backlog to almost half a billion US dollars. Through the three-year remaining term of the Bonds, the average daily charter rate required for our open uncontracted days to meet all our cash obligations ranges from zero through the end of 2027 to US$3,500 in 2028 and US$11,600 in 2029. Lastly, our robust cash balance combined with our unencumbered vessels bodes well for the refinancing of our obligations.”

Read the full release here