Sovcomflot completes 2018 financing plan

Russia’s largest shipping company Sovcomflot has completed its 2018 financing plan with a new $264 million six-year credit facility. 

The credit facility is being used for the early refinancing of a balloon payment due on one of the group’s tanker loan facilities maturing in 2019, whilst it also provides an additional line of available credit for general corporate purposes.

The loan was arranged with a consortium of five leading international banks, including Citibank, DVB Bank, ING Bank, Société Générale, and UniCredit.

Nikolay Kolesnikov, senior executive vice-president and CEO of Sovcomflot, said, “the completion of this credit facility marks the successful finalization of SCF’s 2018 financing plan, with total new debt capital raised this year amounting to circa USD 900 million.”

During the course of the year, Sovcomflot completed a number of similar arrangements one of which was a $252 million, 7-year facility with six banks to fund a series of six LNG-fuelled Aframax tankers.

Last month, the company signed a $149 million credit facility with ING Banks, KfW IPEX-Bank and Credit Agricole to fund the construction of an LNG carrier set to operate on long-term charters with Total.