Greece: Navios Maritime Acquires Handysize Vessel ‘Navios Serenity’

Navios Maritime Holdings Inc., a large, global, vertically integrated seaborne shipping and logistics company, announced today that it has acquired the Navios Serenity, a 2011-built Handysize vessel of 34,718 DWT, for $26.0 million.

The vessel was previously part of Navios Holdings’ long-term chartered-in fleet. The improvement to cash flow, as a result of the replacement of the charter-in cost, is estimated at approximately $2.4 million on an annualized basis.

The acquisition of Navios Serenity is financed by a new credit facility of up to $42.0 million with a syndicate of commercial banks. The new facility will also refinance the existing debt of Navios Astra due for repayment in 2013, thus eliminating refinancing risk for 2013.

The new facility has a term of 8 years and is divided in two tranches having amortization profile of 18 and 14 years and margin of 2.85% and 3.6% respectively.

Angeliki Frangou, Chairman and CEO of Navios Holdings commented, “Last week, we took delivery of the Navios Centaurus. Today, we announced the acquisition of the Navios Serenity and the refinancing of the Navios Astra. In sum, we have been able to take advantage of market opportunities while we actively manage our balance sheet.”

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Source: Navios Maritime, April 2, 2012