FSL Trust sells another vessel for US$6.2 million to pare debt

FIRST Ship Lease Trust (FSL Trust) has sold another vessel to further ease its debt, this time for US$6.2 million.

The trust sold a chemical tanker for US$13.8 million earlier this week to help cut its debt.

The trustee-manager said on Thursday that the trust has sold a containership vessel, FSL Busan, of which the net proceeds will be used to repay an outstanding loan facility.

FSL Busan is a 2003, German-built, 1,221 twenty foot equivalent unit (TEU) containership that has been deployed in the Hanse Containership Pool.

Accordingly, FSL Trust will record a gain on disposal of about US$750,000 in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2018.

FSL Trust had applied to the Singapore High Court for a scheme of arrangement in December, proposing a one-year extension to a syndicated loan facility that has some US$165.6 million outstanding.

Roger Woods, chief executive of the trustee-manager, said that the disposal of another of the trust's older vessels will allow the trust to further reduce its debt under the syndicated loan facility to US$132 million.

He added that the board and management are continuing to pursue solutions for refinancing the trust.[END]

FSL Trust units closed 1.1 per cent or 0.1 Singapore cent down to 9.2 Singapore cents on Thursday, before the announcement was made.