TOPS - TOP Ships Inc. Announces Vessel Refinancings and Full Redemption of Series F Perpetual Preferred Shares Held by Related Party | Benzinga
ATHENS, Greece, Feb. 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TOP Ships Inc. (the "Company" or "Top Ships") (NASDAQ:TOPS), an international owner and operator of modern, fuel efficient "ECO" tanker vessels, announced today that it has entered into five sale and leaseback financing agreements (the "Financing Agreements") with three major Chinese financiers for the refinancing of two 157,000 dwt Suezmax tankers, the M/Ts Eco West Coast and Eco Malibu (already concluded), two 300,000 dwt VLCC tankers, the M/Ts Julius Caesar and Legio X Equestris (already concluded) and one 50,000 dwt MR product tanker, the M/T Eco Marina Del Ray (expected to be concluded between March and May of 2024).
The proceeds after repayment of previous debt of the already-concluded financings amounted to $47.9 million, $43.9 million of which was used to fully redeem the Company's outstanding Series F perpetual preferred shares, held by a related party, pursuant to their terms. The Company expects significant cashflow savings following the full redemption of the Series F perpetual preferred shares that carried a dividend of 13.5% per annum and 36,596,274 votes. The redemption of the Series F perpetual preferred shares was approved by the independent members of the board of directors.
Evangelos Pistiolis, the President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Company, said:
"The amount of cash released from the concluded deals corresponds to about 77% of the current market capitalization of the company. Taking into account the new debt levels of our fleet following the refinancings, the leverage of the fleet remains at a very conservative level of about 45%."
Suezmaxes Refinancing
The duration of the Financing Agreements for the Suezmaxes (the "Suezmax Financing Agreements") is for ten years and we have continuous options, after the first year for the M/T Eco Malibu and after the second year for M/T Eco West Coast, ...