The new deal led by – Nordea, ABN Amro and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) – is also likely to set the stage for Scorpio to order even more tankers over the next two weeks, including its first-ever newbuildings in the long range 2 (LR2) sector, market sources tell TradeWinds.
Scorpio is expected to announce the revolving credit facility Monday as it also discloses earnings for the fourth quarter of 2012.
Emanuele Lauro-led Scorpio has been as busy as any shipowner over the past few months. It has raised $225m in new share capital and placed three separate orders for newbuildings at South Korean shipyards.
The splurge has pushed its orderbook to 20, including 16 medium-range (MR) units and four handymax tankers. It has at least 14 options in place.
The bank financing is the last, if expected, piece to the financial puzzle for ships already ordered, and will allow Scorpio to use bank debt for 60% of the cost as some analysts have projected.
While terms of the deal are not known, sources said margins are expected to be in the current market range of 300 to 350 basis points (bps) over the London interbank offered (Libor) rate.
But rather than rest on its laurels, Scorpio is expected to push its expansion both by declaring options and signing a new deal for LR2s, a sector in which it has only chartered in tonnage except for one owned unit. That expansion would signal Scorpio's bet on a broad-based recovery in the products market.
Scorpio and president Robert Bugbee has been a champion of fuel-efficient "eco" vessel designs, and that approach is expected to continue with any new orders.
"We would expect to make further orders," Bugbee told TradeWinds earlier this month. "We have just raised a lot of capital to do that."
