Russian shipping group Sovcomflot has secured a new 10-year $297m credit facility from international banks ING Bank, KfW IPEX-Bank, and Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank.
The funds will be used for pre- and post-delivery financing of two new 174,000 cu m Atlanticmax LNG carriers, which will operate under long-term charters to Shell.
The two vessels are currently under construction at Hyundai Samho and will be fitted with slow-speed dual-fuel X-DF Diesel engines, with deliveries scheduled in 2020 and 2021.
Sovcomflot’s LNG carrier fleet will be expanded to 16 vessels after taking deliveries of the two ships.
The latest financing deal follows Sovcomflot securing a $149m credit facility from the three banks last November to finance the construction of an LNG carrier which will be chartered to Total.
“SCF Group is pleased with this new LNG project financing with its long-standing financial partners: ING Bank; KfW IPEX-Bank, and Credit Agricole CIB. We very much value the involvement of these three prominent lenders in this deal, which was accomplished in direct continuation of a similar LNG financing concluded with these banks in November 2018, reflecting the banks’ long-term and strong commitment to SCF Group. With the conclusion of this deal, the Group has addressed in full its capital expenditure funding requirements for the next two years,” said Nikolay Kolesnikov, executive vice president and CFO of Sovcomflot.
