Diana Shipping, Inc., a worldwide shipping company that specializes in the ownership of dry bulk vessels, announced Monday that it has signed a five-year term loan facility on July 22 with BNP Paribas.
The loan is worth up to $165 million. The proceeds as well as cash from operations were used to prepay $195 million in full, which was with the revolving credit facility with the Royal Bank of Scotland PLC.
The $165 million sum was secured by the vessels Triton, Oceanis, Danae, Alcyon, Nirefs, Protefs, Norfolk, Calipso, Erato, Salt Lake City, Clio, Thetis, Erato, Sideris GS, Semirio, Alcmene, Boston and Naias.
The fleet of Diana Shipping includes 41 dry bulk vessels, including 20 Panamax, 12 Capesize, four Kamsarmax, three Post-Panamax and two Newcastlemax. In addition, the company intends to gain another Capsize dry bulk vessel by October 2015 and several dry bulk vessels throughout 2016. Without the new vessels, the company’s combined carrying capacity amounts to a approximately 4.7 million deadweight tonnage over a 7.3 year weighted average.
