Sovcomflot gets $160m, 12 year export credit facility
OAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group) has announced that on 12 December 2012 it signed a USD 160 million, 12 year export credit facility with Finnvera plc, Finnish Export Credit Ltd. and ING BANK N.V. The funds will be used towards financing two new ice-breaking supply vessels, Vitus Bering and Aleksey Chirikov, currently under construction at Arctech Helsinki Shipyard Oy (a joint venture of OAO United Shipbuilding Corporation and STX Finland). The new vessels will provide year-round services to the oil platform at the Arkutun-Dagi offshore oilfield (part of the Sakhalin-I project), under a long-term charter agreement with Exxon Neftegas Limited, the Company press release said.
SCF has long-standing relationships with a number of national financial institutions and export credit agencies around the world. The Group is very pleased to establish a new relationship with Finnish Export Credit Ltd. and its parent company Finnvera plc. The export credit agreement was arranged by ING Bank, SCF Group’s long-standing financial partner, on attractive terms and with a favorable long-term tenor.
Nikolai Kolesnikov, Senior Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer, said:
“We welcome the opportunity to work with Finnvera and Finnish Export Credit, two new financing partners for SCF Group, in addition to our longstanding partner ING Bank. This is the third successful international financing agreement for SCF Group in 2012. It further strengthens the Group’s liquidity position and, despite the challenging conditions of the global financial and shipping markets, enables us to address all our key upcoming financial requirements.”
• June 2012 - Citi, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and OAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group) signed a USD 140 million, 7 year loan Agreement to finance the construction of two VLCC-tankers. The vessels will operate on long-term charter agreements with PetroChina International (a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation CNPC), one of the world’s leading oil & gas corporations.
• December 2012 - Sovcomflot (SCF Group) signed a new USD 700 million 7 year credit facility with a consortium of eight leading international banks, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas S.A., Citibank, N.A., DVB Bank SE, ING Bank N.V., Nordea Bank Norge ASA and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ) acting as mandated lead arrangers and Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc. as arranger. The loan has set a benchmark for bank financing of the tanker industry in the current year as one of the largest transactions by volume, with one of the longest tenors.
• In addition to asset-backed financing (secured against its vessels) from commercial banks and structured finance, with the involvement of national financial institutions and export credit agencies, Sovcomflot has been raising funds from the international debt capital markets.
SCF Group of companies (Sovcomflot) - one of the world's leading energy shipping companies, specializing in crude oil, petroleum products and liquefied gas transportation and offshore upstream services (shuttle tankers, platform supply vessels). The fleet includes 156 vessels with a total deadweight of nearly 12 million tonnes. The company is registered in St. Petersburg with offices in Moscow, Novorossiysk, Murmansk, Vladivostok, London, Limassol, Madrid, Singapore and Dubai.
Sovcomflot services large industrial offshore energy projects in Russia and abroad, such as: Sakhalin-1, Sakhalin-2, Varandey, Prirazlomnoye, Tangguh, Escobar, Peregrino.
The Group offers a wide range of vessels highly concentrated in the market segments most demanded by major Russian oil and gas companies. With its own technical development and unique approach to advanced technologies, Sovcomflot has the ability to meet the most demanding customer requirements, providing effective transportation solutions for oil & gas companies