Navios Acquisition Buys VLCC Nave Celeste

Navios Maritime Acquisition Corporation, an owner and operator of tanker vessels, announced today the acquisition and delivery of the Nave Celeste, a 298,717 dwt VLCC, built in 2003 in South Korea, for a purchase price of $35.4 million. The acquisition price was funded from cash on the balance sheet.
The Nave Celeste will be assuming the existing charter of the Shinyo Navigator with a remaining period of 3.3 years and a charter rate of $42,705 (net) per day. Navios Acquisition is assessing market opportunities for the Shinyo Navigator, a 1996-built VLCC with a current value of about $22.0 million.
Impact on Navios Acquisitions 8 5/8% Secured Bond Due 2017
As a result of this transaction, the Shinyo Navigator will be substituted by the Nave Celeste as collateral under the bonds due in 2017, with the net result that additional collateral, estimated at $13.0 million, will be added to the existing collateral package.
Angeliki Frangou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Navios Acquisition, stated, We were able to replace an aging vessel with a much younger vessel, having 7 more years of useful life with only nominal additional cost, considering the need for dry docking and the consequential off hire.
Angeliki Frangou continued, By this transaction, we also added an estimated $13.0 million of additional collateral to the security for our bonds to the benefit of our bondholders.
Fleet Update
Navios Acquisition currently owns 41 vessels: 29 product tankers, 4 chemical tankers and 8 VLCC.
Navios Acquisition has contracted 92.1% and 60.4% of its available days on a charter-out basis for 2013 and 2014, respectively.
The average charter-out period of Navios Acquisitions fleet is 2.4 years.

Navios Acquisition, August 13, 2013; Image: Wikimedia