EURONAV has entered into an agreement for the purchase of 4 modern Japanese built VLCC vessels for an aggregate purchase price of USD 342 million, the company said in its press release. The vessels are on average 3 years old. This acquisition fits into the company’s strategy to further strengthen its position as the leading listed crude tanker company.
The transaction allows EURONAV to expand its existing fleet with an ‘en bloc’ acquisition of 4 of the best vessels that can be found in today’s second hand market. This will not only rejuvenate the company’s fleet, but it will also complement the company’s existi ng fleet and further position EURONAV as the key pure play consolidator in the crude tanker industry. Three vessels are expected to be delivered in the course of the third and fourth quarter of this year and the last vessel in the course of the second quar ter of 2015.
The acquisition of the vessels will be partly financed with funds raised through a private placement of new shares within the authorised capital which will be launched today. The new shares will be offered to institutional investors selected through an accelerated book build offering. EURONAV intends to raise USD 100 million in this private placement. The company intends to raise a further USD 200 million in bank debt for this acquisition.
Petercam NV, acting as Settlement Agent and one core shareholder will enter into a share swap agreement in order to deliver listed shares to all investors who receive allocated shares in the private placement. As part of this share s wap agreement the core shareholder will deliver up to 10,000,000 existing and listed shares to the Settlement Agent. The core shareholder will receive in exchange the same number of newly issued non - listed shares. The listing and trading on Euronext Brusse ls of all other newly issued shares (not subject to the aforementioned share swap agreement) will be requested immediately after their issue. The shares that the core shareholder will receive as a result of the share swap will be listed upon approval of a listing prospectus by the FSMA on a later date.