Rickmers Maritime completes sale of vessel to pay down loan

RICKMERS Maritime said on Tuesday that the sale of the vessel, Kaethe C Rickmers, which was announced last week, has been completed on Tuesday.

The vessel is security for senior loan facilities extended by HSH Nordbank and DBS Bank. Rickmers expects to take a US$31.6 million impairment loss in the fourth quarter of 2016 from the sale. Proceeds from the sale will be used to pay the operating costs of other secured vessels under the same facility and for partial prepayment of the loan.

In a filing to the Singapore Exchange on Tuesday, Rickmers added that it intends to make voluntary prepayments of US$10.4 million towards the senior loan facilities extended by BNP Paribas, ING Bank NV (Singapore Branch), the Bank of Nova Scotia Asia, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank (Singapore Branch) to certain subsidiaries of the trust.