Clean-tanker owner Navios Acquisition has warned of "substantial doubt" that it can remain solvent if refinancing discussions are unsuccessful.
The New York-listed shipowner has assets of $125.7mn and liabilities of $762.6mn, resulting in a negative working capital position of $636.8mn. Much of the liability is debt contained in its bond issuances, which will mature on 15 November. There are also balloon payments due under its credit facilities and liabilities under its sale and leaseback transactions, Navios said.
The company has sold six tankers so far this quarter, for a net $98mn, and is conducting negotiations with its bondholders and credit institutions with a view to refinancing. But "there is substantial doubt over the company's ability to continue as a going concern," it said in an official filing with the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC).
It said that it has sufficient cash flow to cover its normal interest repayments and day-to-day working capital, excluding the upcoming debt maturities.
Navios Acquisition swung to a loss of $9.7mn in the first quarter of 2021 from a profit of $869,000 in the same period a year earlier. The company's time charter equivalent (TCE) rate dropped to $14,854/d in the first quarter from $24,442/d a year earlier. Rates in 2020 were buoyed by a rush of demand to use tanker to store clean products, which kept the market elevated during the quarter.
Navios Acquisition has a fleet of 43, including 10 very large crude carriers (VLCCs), 31 product tankers and two chemical tankers. The firm was formed through a merger of Navios Maritime Acquisition and Navios Maritime Midstream Partners in 2018.
