Scorpio Tankers secures scrubber, sale & leaseback financing

Tanker owner and operator Scorpio Tankers has finalized commitments from three financial institutions and has received a new commitment for a scrubber financing facility.

The financing facilities are expected to increase the company’s liquidity by approximately $82 million.

Specifically, Scorpio has secured a new commitment of $12 million to finance scrubbers on six MRs of which five have been installed to date.

Including this new financing arrangement, the company expects to raise approximately $66 million of aggregate additional liquidity once all of the previously announced scrubber financing agreements are closed and drawn.

Scorpio Tankers entered into a deal to fit scrubbers on 42 of its vessels in 2019 and for 10 of its vessels in 2020.

In May, the company said it would postpone the purchase and installation of scrubbers on 19 of its vessels to 2021. 

The financing deals also cover the sale and leaseback of eight MR product tankers.

Two of the eight vessels have already been delivered to their buyer, and the remaining six vessels are expected to be delivered to their buyers in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Upon completion of all the transactions for the eight vessels and the repayment of their existing debt, the company expects to have raised approximately $70 million of liquidity in aggregate.

The facilities that have not been finalized are subject to customary conditions precedent and execution of definitive documentation.

The company’s fleet consists of 134 owned, finance leased or bareboat chartered-in product tankers with an average age of 4.8 years.