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Last week, SFL Corporation Ltd. announced that it has agreed to acquire a 307,900 DWT VLCC newbuilding resale, which is expected to be delivered from Dalian Shipbuilding in China in the second quarter, for a net purchase price of $65 million, significantly below VesselsValue's estimate of $90 million, providing SFL with substantial asset backing. Upon delivery, the vessel will be bareboat chartered for seven years to an affiliate of the Landbridge Group, who in turn has secured a three-year sub-charter to an oil major, ensuring cash flow visibility.

Shown below is Eggar Forrester Shipbrokers latest summary of reported ship sale transactions for the year. Clearly there are far fewer ships to finance these days.

If the pandemic continues and the recovery is delayed, as much liquidity as one may have accumulated and thought to be sufficient may still not be enough.

The fact that public shipowners were surprised yesterday that, despite record earnings, their share prices declined substantially was strange and surely taken out of historic context. It would be fair to say that the number of investors who have lost money far outnumber those that made profits on their shipping investments over the last 10 years, if not longer.

Forgive us for bastardizing Thomas Paine's famous quote, but these are challenging times for all. The economic collapse from COVID-19 has left companies bereft of revenues with survival dependent on cost-cutting or raising capital. The Norwegians have a simple and elegant solution.

Capital Product Partners L.P. announced yesterday that it had completed the previously announced refinancing with ICBC Financial Leasing Co., Ltd. for the sale and lease back of the CMA CGM Amazon, the CMA CGM Uruguay, and the CMA CGM Magdalena, three Post-Panamax containerships built in 2015/2016 with a cargo carrying capacity of 9,288 TEUs.

While we cannot say that the quarterly reporting season brings joy to the analysts, it does give them the grist needed their research. We are thankful to leave the numbers to them and take advantage of the many other company disclosures, which include recent financing activities. Below we highlight a number of these transactions.

On Monday, Teekay Corporation and Teekay LNG Partners L.P. announced their agreement to eliminate all of the partnership's incentive distribution rights ("IDR") in exchange for 10.75 million newly issued Teekay LNG common units.

It can come as no surprise that, as a result of COVID-19, the airlines are in dire trouble and this has had a ripple effect on the industry's supply chain including manufacturing, maintenance, fuel, catering, and many other businesses too numerous to mention. Then, of course, there are the industry's financiers.

No one could possibly anticipate a pandemic. But with fortuitous timing, Maximilian Otto and his partners married ship finance with technology to create an innovative digital platform which is perfect both for these times and for the future. They describe it as "ship finance, simplified."

On Tuesday, Scorpio Tankers Inc.announced that it had successfully priced its public offering of $25million fixed-rate senior unsecured notes in a "baby" bond format.

Even a pandemic cannot slow down TOP Ships ("TOPS"). Despite our belief that equity investors have little interest in shipping, TOPS makes the contrary case.

In what was and still is a highly unusual transaction, Scorpio Bulkers participated in the public offering of the common shares of its affiliate, Scorpio Tankers, in October 2018.

COVID-19 has not slowed down Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. After extending the maturity of two loans totaling $30.6 million in early March, Seanergy executed, with the assistance of the Maxim Group, four public offerings in quick succession, raising approximately $25m in total gross proceeds.

Marine Money's monthly "Ship Finance Market Conditions" survey of the world's top 40 shipping Banks
PDF Available - Members Only

Marine Money's monthly "Ship Finance Market Conditions" survey of the world's top 40 shipping Banks
PDF Available - Members Only

The lyrics of the song referenced in the title speak to questions about life generally.Somewhat apropos, but more specific, Deutsche Bank's Amit Mehrotra penned an open fan letter to the management of Euronav pondering whether public companies, which are good corporate citizens and stewards of capital, will ever be rewarded?

Despite being in "pause," work continues, and transactions closed. Last week, Dorian LPG, successfully closed two significant financing transactions and, from the look of them, some of the best work can be done from home.

That COVID-19 has become the torrent of desperate news these past weeks is to put it lightly. And it will likely be the case for weeks to come. Some countries, however, seem to be over the worst, they hope, and many countries are considering opening up their economies to varying degrees in the coming days and weeks. Who knows, by the Fall we may be nearing a level of normality apart from social distancing which will stay in place until a vaccine is found.

One can and should hope.