Ship financing secured

This term loan facility is financed at 70% by the Export Import Bank of Korea and at 30% by three financial institutions acting as Mandated Lead Arrangers, i.e. BNPP (BNP Paribas), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Ahli United Bank (AUB). BNPP is also the Structuring Bank, the Documentation Bank, the Agent and the Account Bank.

UASC would now have concluded the financing for its entire fleet of nine new building of A13 vessels ordered from Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in Korea, valued at a combined total of US$ 1.5 billion.

During 2010 UASC had achieved financing closures worth $US 1.1 billion in favour of six of its A13 new building orders and of container boxes as well arranging for the refinancing of its existing A7 vessels, through a combination of club and bilateral transactions with Regional and International Banks.

The fleet of A13s would as per own statement significantly improve UASC’s cost-base and enable it to compete head-to-head with other industry majors. This, together with progressing network expansion, increased investment in IT systems, as well as efficiency improvement measures, is said to reconfirm the company’s leading position in the region as well as UASC’s commitment to reducing the carbon footprint by bringing the world’s most environmentally friendly container vessels into service.