Performance Shipping Inc. enters sale and leaseback agreement for tank vessels

Tanker owner Performance Shipping entered into a sale and leaseback agreement with an unaffiliated third party for a previously announced newbuild LR2 Aframax tanker vessel. This concludes the financing for all three newbuilding LNG-ready, scrubber-fitted LR2 product/crude oil tanker vessels of approximately 114,000 dwt each, expected to be delivered in August and September 2025, and January 2026.

The bareboat financing amount totals $45 million. As part of this agreement, the vessel will be sold and then chartered back to Performance Shipping Inc. on a bareboat basis for an eight-year period starting from delivery from the shipyard. The bareboat charter includes 96 monthly installments at a fixed rate of $6,850 per day, plus a variable rate calculated monthly at an implied interest rate of SOFR plus 2.05% per annum. Additionally, a balloon payment of approximately $25 million will be due together with the last installment. Performance Shipping Inc. has continuous options to repurchase the vessel at predetermined rates following the second anniversary of the bareboat charter.

As announced last March, all three newbuilding LR2 Aframax tankers have been chartered to Clearlake Shipping Pte Ltd. for a period of five years, upon delivery of the vessel, at a rate of $31,000 per day and an option to extend for a 6th and 7th year at a base rate plus profit sharing if declared at that time by the charterer.