Scorpio Bulkers Borrows to Fit Scrubbers

Scorpio Bulkers, a shipping company that owns and operates dry bulk carriers worldwide, announced that it has reached agreements with certain lenders to to increase certain existing credit facilities by a total of $41 million.

The Monaco-based dry bulk shipping company said in a press release that the agreement in order to finance the installation of exhaust gas cleaning systems (scrubbers) on certain of its vessels.

The additional amounts will be drawn upon the installation of the scrubbers on these vessels, and are structured as upsizings of existing credit facilities. They also have loan margins that match the loan margins on the respective existing credit facilities.

These financing arrangements will be subject to conditions precedent and the execution of definitive documentation, it added.

Scorpio Bulkers also has an option to buy scrubbers for up to 18 additional vessels in 2020. It will have retrofitted 62 of its vessels with scrubbers, by the end of 2019.

Upon the completion of the pending sale of two Kamsarmax vessels, Scorpio Bulkers will have an operating fleet of 55 vessels consisting of 54 wholly-owned or finance leased drybulk vessels (including 17 Kamsarmax vessels and 37 Ultramax vessels), and one time chartered-in Ultramax vessel.

The company's owned and finance leased fleet will have a total carrying capacity of approximately 3.7 million dwt and all of the Company's owned vessels will have carrying capacities of greater than 60,000 dwt.