American Shipping gets consent to extend PIK floaters by six years

By Angela McDaniels

Tacoma, Wash., Oct. 6 - American Shipping Co. ASA, formerly Aker American Shipping ASA, received bondholder consent to amend the terms of its callable floating-rate PIK senior bonds, according to a company announcement. The bondholders met on Oct. 5.

The company received consent to extend the maturity date to Feb. 28, 2018 from Feb. 28, 2012, to make any of the remaining interest payments in kind and to reduce the equity requirement of the loan agreement to $50 million.

The amendments required the presence of holders of at least two-thirds of the bonds at the meeting and approval from at least half of the amount represented.

The company will pay a 0.1% consent fee.

In addition, the company and Converto Capital Fund AS have agreed to make some adjustments to Converto's $20 million loan to the company by aligning the maturity date with the bonds and sharing any cash debt servicing pro rata with the bondholders.

As previously reported, Aker ASA is holding a tender offer for the notes that will end at 11:30 a.m. ET on Oct. 10. It will pay 40% of the bonds' par value as of the last interest payment date, Aug. 29.

The bonds have a coupon of Nibor plus 475 basis points, and the issue size was originally NOK 700 million. The total outstanding amount is now NOK 1,033,703,743 and includes all pay-in-kind interest.

Those interested in the tender offer should contact Pareto Securities AS at 47 22 87 87 70.

American Shipping is a shipping company based in Oslo. Its principal subsidiary has headquarters in Philadelphia.

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