On June 20, 2012, the Company entered into a Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement to its credit facility agreement, dated as of October 19, 2007, as amended up to the date thereof (the “Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement”), which, among other things, (i) permanently waives any purported defaults or events of defaults that were the subject of a temporary waiver under the Sixth Amendatory and Commercial Framework Implementation Agreement (the "Sixth Amendment") to the Third Amended and Restated Credit Agreement dated October 19, 2007, including any alleged events of default arising from any purported breach of the minimum adjusted net worth covenant that occurred as a result of any failure to maintain the required adjusted net worth; (ii) converts the $1,129,478,741 outstanding under the revolving credit facility into a term loan; (iii) sets the maturity date as December 31, 2015, and, subject to the Company's satisfaction of certain conditions including a collateral coverage ratio at December 31, 2015 that is less than 80%, provides an option to the Company to further extend the maturity date by an additional 18 months to June 30, 2017 (the "Termination Date"); (iv) requires no mandatory repayments of principal until the Termination Date, other than a quarterly sweep of cash on hand in excess of $20,000,000 and upon the sale of vessels, additional financings or future equity raises by the Company. All amounts outstanding under the term loan will bear interest at LIBOR plus a margin that will include a payment-in-kind ("PIK") component. The initial cash margin of 3.50% and PIK margin of 2.50% can be reduced on the basis of reduced leverage and proceeds from future equity raises by the Company.

The Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement also provides for a new Liquidity Facility in the aggregate amount of $20,000,000, which permits the purchase or sale of vessels within certain parameters, permits the management of third party vessels and provides that all capitalized interest in the form of PIK loans, which will mature on the Termination Date. On the Termination Date, the Company may elect to either (i) repay the PIK loans in cash; or (ii) convert the PIK loans into shares of cumulative convertible preferred stock, par value $10.00 per share. As of June 30, 2012 the outstanding amount of the term loan was $1,129,478,741, the amount of the PIK loans was $707,688 and no amount was drawn on the Liquidity Facility. In connection with the Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Amendment, the Company recorded $12,624,330 of deferred financing costs that are amortized over the life of the term loan, including amendment and professional fees, of which 50% of the amendment fees were paid upon signing the Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement and the remaining 50% is payable in equal amounts during the third and fourth quarters of 2012.

In addition, the Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement replaces the previously existing financial covenants and substitutes them with new covenants, which shall require the Company to (i) maintain a maximum leverage ratio of the term loan indebtedness, excluding the PIK loans, to EBITDA (as defined in the Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement), on a trailing four quarter basis, commencing in the quarterly period ending September 30, 2013 of 13.9:1, declining in intervals to 7.3:1 for the quarterly period ending December 31, 2015 and, should the Termination Date be extended under the Company’s option, further declining in intervals to 6.2:1 for the quarterly period ending March 31, 2017, (ii) maintain a minimum interest coverage ratio of EBITDA to cash interest expenses on a trailing four quarter basis, expressed as a percentage, commencing in the quarterly period ending June 30, 2013 of 130%, escalating in intervals to 220% for the quarterly period ending December 31, 2015 and, should the Termination Date be extended, further escalating in intervals to 230% for the quarterly period ending March 31, 2017, (iii) maintain free cash with the agent in one or more accounts in an amount equal to $500,000 per vessel owned directly or indirectly by the Company, provided that the unutilized amount of the liquidity facility shall be deemed to constitute free cash for these purposes and (iv) maintain a minimum collateral coverage ratio commencing in the quarterly period ending September 30, 2014 of 100% of the term loan indebtedness and any related swap exposure, declining in intervals to 80% for the quarterly period ending December 31, 2015 and, should the Termination Date be extended, further declining in intervals to 70% for the quarterly period ending March 31, 2017.

In connection with the Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, the Company entered into a Warrant Agreement, dated June 20, 2012, pursuant to which the Company issued 3,148,584 warrants convertible on a cashless basis into shares of the Company's common stock, par value $0.01 (the "Warrant Shares"), at a strike price of $0.01 per share of common stock. One-third of the warrants are exercisable immediately, the next third of the warrants are exercisable when the price of the Company's common stock reaches $10.00 per share and the last third of the warrants are exercisable when the price of the Company's common stock reaches $12.00 per share. Unexercised warrants will expire on June 20, 2022. The Company determined the relative fair value of the Warrant Shares at $6.3 million using the Monte Carlo simulation which was performed, and the mean value was selected. The assumptions used in the Monte Carlo simulation were the underlying stock price of $2.98, risk-free rate of 1.64%, expected volatility of 79.3%, expected term of 10 years and expected dividend yield of 0%. The fair value of the warrants was recorded as deferred financing cost and amortized over the life of the term loan agreement.

Our obligations under the Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement are secured by a first priority mortgage on each of the vessels in our fleet, and by a first assignment of all freights, earnings, insurances and requisition compensation relating to our vessels. The Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement also limits our ability to create liens on our assets in favor of other parties.

On September 26, 2011, we entered into the Sixth Amendatory and Commercial Framework Implementation Agreement (the "Sixth Amendment") to the Third Amended and Restated Credit Agreement dated October 19, 2007, which has since been amended and restated in its entirety by the Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement. Among other provisions, the Sixth Amendment had suspended the Company's compliance with certain covenants requirements until June 20, 2012.

For the six months ended June 30, 2012, interest rates on the outstanding debt ranged from 2.71% to 7.73%, including a margin of 2.50% over LIBOR applicable under the terms of the amended revolving credit facility. The weighted average effective interest rate was 3.48%.

Interest paid, exclusive of capitalized interest, in the six-month periods ended June 30, 2012 and 2011 amounted to $19,722,475 and $22,470,387, respectively.