Navig8 nets $110m for newbuilds in OTC debut
Potential eight-strong order for MR tankers at STX is supported by the Navig8 and Oaktree joint venture’s first visit to the capital markets in Oslo, the company said in its press release.
Navig8 has tapped Norway’s over-the-counter (OTC) market for a fresh $110m to support a new order for four chemical tanker newbuildings at South Korea’s STX Offshore & Shipbuilding.
Navig8 confirmed the order in response to questions from TradeWinds this week. It would not comment on the source of its equity raise, referring only to a “private placement”.
However, market sources tell TradeWinds that Navig8 Chemical Tankers has made its first raise on Oslo’s OTC exchange. Previously, it had been funded only through a partnership with private-equity power Oaktree Capital Management.
The new equity will partly fund the four 49,000-dwt, IMO type II chemical tankers to be built at STX, as well as its existing orderbook for eight 25,000-dwt units at Japan’s Kitanihon Shipbuilding Co and Fukuoka Shipbuilding Co, and 18 vessels of 37,000 dwt at Korea’s Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD), confirms Navig8 chief executive Nicolas Busch.
The STX order is understood to be four firm units, with four options, priced at about $40m apiece.
Navig8 would not confirm the pricing nor the options. But delivery is scheduled for 2016.
In June, TradeWinds reported that Navig8 was being linked with an order for medium-range (MR) products tankers at STX but the owner dismissed the account as incorrect. The distinction, it emerges, is that Navig8 plans to operate the vessels as dedicated chemical tankers with no deployment in clean products.
Navig8 Chemical Tankers has a sister company, Navig8 Products Tankers, that has invested in 30 long-range-one and two (LR1 and LR2) newbuildings but no MRs.
Fast-growing Navig8 aims to become the world’s leading supplier of larger chemical tankers, building on its commercial operation of 69 vessels in its chemical pools. It features contracts of affreighment (COAs) with leading charterers.
“These are ideally suited to meet the strong growth in demand on long-haul chemical trades out of the Middle East and the US over the next three to four years,” said Busch, referring to the chemicals newbuilding programme.
“The pricing, eco-performance and early deliveries from the first quarter of 2015 onwards, plus the well-funded position, gives Navig8 a very strong platform in this market,” Busch said, noting a growth strategy aimed at more than 100 vessels.
This is Navig8’s second newbuildings contract with STX this year. In February, it signed up eight LR1s for delivery in 2016. The 74,000-dwt products tanker newbuildings were reported to cost slightly more than $48m each.
