Scorpio Tankers Eyes Option on LR2 Tanker Trio

New York-listed Scorpio Tankers intends to issue 15,000,000 shares of its common stock, through an underwritten public offering, earmarking the net proceeds for acquisition of new vessels.

Scorpio said that all of the net proceeds are expected to be used to fund a portion of the acquisition costs of additional modern product tankers, which may include three LR2 product tankers that the company currently has options to purchase from an unaffiliated third party.

The shares are said to be priced at $0.01 per share.

The company added that it intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 2,250,000 additional common shares.

UBS Securities LLC is acting as sole book-running manager in the offering, and Clarksons Platou Securities, Inc. is acting as joint lead manager. Clarkson Capital Markets, LLC, Evercore Group L.L.C., Nomura Securities International, Inc. and Stifel are acting as senior co-managers.

Scorpio Tankers Inc. currently owns 67 tankers and has contracted for 11 newbuilding product tankers (five MR and six LR2), seven of which are expected to be delivered in the second quarter of 2015 and the remaining four vessels in 2016.