Seaspan to Invest USD 200 Mn in Swiber

Hong Kong-based containership owner Seaspan Corporation has entered into a binding term sheet to invest up to USD 200 million in Swiber Holdings Limited, a publicly traded Singaporean owner of offshore vessels.

The investment will include USD 20 million in exchange for an 80% economic interest in the restructured Swiber Group, and USD 180 million targeting a USD 1 billion LNG-to-power project in Vietnam under development, in exchange for economic interests in the project.

Bing Chen, Seaspan’s President and Chief Executive Officer, expects the investment to “unlock substantial value.”

“Concurrently, we will continue to invest in and improve operations of our existing containership leasing business to provide best-in-class service to our customers. I would like to congratulate our Special Projects team, led by Matthew Tinari, on structuring and executing this opportunistic potential investment,” Bing added.

Seaspan intends to fund the investment with cash on hand.

Closing of the first tranche is expected to occur in the first part of 2019, but is dependent on several conditions including the emergence of Swiber from its judicial management process in Singapore, the approval of Swiber’s shareholders and creditors, Singapore regulatory approvals and other customary conditions.

The second tranche is conditional on several conditions as well.