Stealthgas To Acquire Two LPG Vessels - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Stealthgas Inc. (GASS) announced the acquisition of two newbuilding LPG vessels, as part of its fleet expansion program. Both vessels will be constructed in Japan. The first vessel is a 5,000cbm LPG carrier scheduled to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2014; while the second vessel is a 3,500cbm LPG carrier scheduled to be delivered in the first quarter of 2015.

This brings the total number of LPG carriers the Company expects to take delivery of from March 2014 to August 2015 to 17 for a total cost of approximately $345 million and the total value of its assets including the 17 vessels to approximately $1 billion.

Deposits of $75 million have already been paid and the Company intends to fund the remaining capital expenditure of approximately $270 million through bank finance and available cash. The Company has concluded negotiations with banks for firm commitments to finance 13 of these vessels for an amount up to $185 million, and has received indicative offers for additional bank finance of approximately $50 million for the remaining vessels including the two vessels whose acquisitions were announced today.

The company said it expects to conclude the remaining financing arrangements within the current quarter. The company has entered into negotiations with the financing banks with respect to credit facilities under which balloon payments of circa $33 million are scheduled to be repaid during 2014 and based on their indications received expects to conclude the refinancing of such credit facilities within the second quarter of 2014.

In addition, the company announced the hiring of two senior executives. Stavros Papantonopoulos has joined the company as Finance Manager. As a result, Harry Vafias will assume the role of interim CFO replacing Constantinos Sistovaris. Papantonopoulos was previously employed by Goldman Sachs in New York followed by Eurobank Properties S.A. and before joining the Company he was a senior analyst for a well known US shipping fund.

In addition, Diamantis Andriotis has joined the company as Chief Technical Officer to oversee the technical management of the growing fleet and vessels under construction. Andriotis was technical manager at Stealth Maritime and holds a Doctorate degree in mechanical engineering from City University, while he is also a member of the technical committees of some of the leading classification societies.