GasLog Ltd. (GasLog) (NYSE:GLOG) announces that it has signed an Export Credit Agency-backed debt financing of $1.05 billion with twelve international banks for its current newbuilding programme (Newbuild Facility).
The Newbuild Facility covers the balance due to the shipyard on delivery and consequently the final instalments of the seven newbuildings are fully funded. Five of these seven newbuildings are scheduled to deliver from the yards into firm multi-year charters in 2020 and the remaining two into firm multi-year charters in 2021.
The key highlights of the Newbuild Facility include:
- Tenor of up to 12 years with an amortisation profile of 18 years from vessel delivery;
Attractive weighted-average margin; - Financial and non-financial covenants aligned with recent GasLog Warsaw facility;
- High levels of interest from GasLog’s existing bank group and new institutions (final commitments two times oversubscribed); and
- Backed by the Export Import Bank of Korea (“KEXIM”) and the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (“K-Sure”), who are either directly lending or providing cover for over 60% of the facility.
GasLog also announces that it has amended the covenants on its existing bank facilities to align them with the terms of the Newbuild Facility and the recently concluded GasLog Warsaw facility, resulting in significant improvements to the financial and non-financial covenants across all bank debt at both GasLog and GasLog Partners LP.
In addition, GasLog has called the remaining NOK 434 million (c. $50 million) of its 2021 NOK Bond. The bond call will be settled in January 2020 with proceeds from its 2024 NOK 900 million bond issued November 2019, the covenants of which are aligned with its bank facilities.
Along with the announcement of the Newbuild Facility and the favourable changes to our financing arrangements, GasLog announces the payment of a Special Dividend of $0.38 per common share payable on December 31, 2019 to shareholders of record on December 24, 2019. This underscores GasLog’s anticipation of a continuing strong macro environment for LNG shipping in 2020. During 2019 and including this special dividend, GasLog will have distributed dividends totalling $0.98 to its shareholders. GasLog will continue to focus on driving shareholder value during 2020 and will evaluate further opportunities for additional rewards to shareholders.
Source: GasLog