The Belgian operator shed light on the development shortly after it emerged as Blackstone Group’s partner in a joint venture that is looking to buy five tankers from bankrupt US owner Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG).
In a statement it indicated a portion of the $980m transaction that started to take shape late last year will be covered by a $500m senior secured credit facility underwritten by DNB Bank, Nordea Bank Norge and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB).
“The facility was fully underwritten in equal part by DnB, Nordea and SEB and is currently being syndicated,” Euronav continued. "The credit facility has a six-year maturity as from closing of the syndication, a process that usually takes four to five weeks.”
Euronav, which has also issued a $235m seven-year bond to the same investors that participated in a capital increase completed just last month, told investors that borrowings under the freshly minted credit facility will bear interest at a rate based on LIBOR plus a margin.
Euronav owns up to OSG bid
The company used the update about its latest bond offering and the new credit facility as an opportunity to confirm that it recently teamed up with Blackstone affiliate GSO Capital Partners (GSO) in an effort to acquire three VLCCs and a pair of aframaxes from OSG.
“If the joint venture is the successful bidder for the assets in the bankruptcy sale process, which is being organized as an auction under Chapter 11, the joint venture will sell the vessels to Euronav shortly after sellers’ delivery of the vessels,” it said.
“In the event that the sale of the vessels to Euronav is consummated, affiliates of GSO will receive, as part of the purchase price paid by Euronav to the joint venture, both bonds and new equity issued by Euronav.”
While the company hinted that more transactions were on the horizon in its fourth-quarter earnings release few believed another deal would materialise so soon even though the owner assured observers it would wrap up the Maersk raid “rapidly”.
Before Euronav clinched the $500m credit facility and completed its latest bond issuance the NYSE Euronext-listed operator raised roughly $200m from the sale of preferred shares to firms like York Capital Management and Goldentree Asset Management.
The former’s appetite for shipping deals across a variety of segments has garnered a great deal of publicity in recent months but the latter has managed to keep a relatively low profile despite its growing interest in the industry.
Goldentree recently made TradeWinds headlines, however, when it was unmasked as one of the investment firms that had a significant economic interest in the outcome of OSG’s Chapter 11 restructuring. At last check it had accumulated nearly $45m worth of the owner’s notes.
