Performance Shipping fixes leaseback deal for second LR2 newbuild

Greece’s Performance Shipping has agreed a new sale and leaseback deal for one of its newbuilds.

The Nasdaq-listed tanker owner and operator of seven aframaxes on the water is selling its LNG-ready scrubber-fitted LR2 product and crude oil carrier to an unnamed counterparty in Asia and chartering it back for 10 years on a bareboat basis.

The bareboat financing amount totals about $45.39m, or 70% of the vessel’s shipbuilding price, and kicks in upon its delivery from CSSC-affiliated Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding in the first quarter of 2026.

The deal is the second sale and leaseback the company struck for the 114,000 dwt duo ordered in late December 2023. Both ships have been fixed to Clearlake Shipping, a subsidiary of commodity trading giant Gunvor, at $31,000 per day.

Aliki Paliou-led Performance will buy back the vessel for $20.2m, including the last installment, when the ten-year bareboat deal expires, but also has options for early repurchase after two years under the charter.

Performance’s chief of finance, Andreas Michalopoulos, said the financing terms of the deal result in an estimated daily cashflow breakeven of about $24,390 per day, which will be “comfortably covered” by the secured charter dayrate.