| John Georgiopoulos |
General Maritime Corp. has navigated a new $825 million credit facility to pay down debt and obtain additional financial flexibility to expand the company's business, said John Georgiopoulos, cfo of the tanker operator. The new facility will replace three separate credit facilities that were expiring in 2007 and 2008. The old facilities were for $300 million, $165 million and $275 million and in total provided $150 million of revolving borrowing capacity. When compared to the company's old facilities, Georgiopoulos cited a lower interest rate, an increased revolver and quarterly schedules of repayment as advantages of the new loan. "We have a $600 million revolver to draw down and pay back. We did not have that type of financial power in the old facility," he said.
The new facility also comprises a $225 million term loan with the whole $825 million facility priced at LIBOR plus 1%. "It looks like interest rates are going up. We had very good timing, very favorable rates," Georgiopoulos said. The revolver has a five-year maturity and a 50 basis points commitment fee on the unused portion. The new facility is secured by the company's 47 vessel fleet.
General Maritime tapped Nordea as lead bank. The co-arrangers on the facility are Citibank, HSH Nordbank, Dresdner Bank, Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Nordea led General Maritime´s previous facilities as well.