Scorpio Changes Tack on Capesize Newbuild Plan

Scorpio Bulkers announced today that it has partially scrapped its Capesize newbuild plan and will instead be replacing six of their Capesize orders with an order for six LR2 product tankers.

The company says they have reached agreements with shipyards in South Korea and Romania to modify their newbuilding contracts and will subsequently sell four of these LR2 newbuilding contracts to Scorpio Tankers at price of $51.0 million each, with options for Scorpio Tankers to purchase the remaining two LR2 newbuild contracts for a fixed purchase price of $52.5 million each.

The change of plans will result in an aggregate loss of approximately $41 million for the four newbuilds, plus another loss of approximately $14 million on the potential disposal of the two option modified newbuilding contracts.

“At the purchase prices indicated above, a sale of all six modified newbuilding contracts will result in an estimated reduction of future cash obligations of approximately $120 million. Emanuele Lauro, the Company’s Chairman and CEO, commented “We have taken these actions to strengthen our liquidity position. We will continue to be proactive in further strengthening our balance sheet.”