In its first ship finance deal with a UK ship owner, Standard Chartered has signed a £36mn (US$54.8mn) loan with Bibby Offshore.
The bilateral loan facility, to the wholly-owned subsidiary of Bibby Line Group, will mature in eight years.
The financing will be used in the acquisition of the diving support vessel Bibby Sapphire, which is currently operated by the UK-based company in the North Sea.
Bibby has also been expanding into Asia, with the company relocating another diving support vessel, Bibby Aquamarine, to the region last year, as well as opening regional headquarters in Singapore.
Nigel Anton, global head of shipping finance at Standard Chartered, tells GTR: “Bibby Line Group, while based in the UK, is very active in Standard Chartered’s footprint across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and we can support them in these regions [and] as long as other UK shipping owners [and] operators have similar needs in our footprint, we will be very pleased to work with them.”
The deal was advised by law firm Watson, Farley and Williams’ (WFW) Singapore office.
WFW partner, Chris Lowe, comments: “We are delighted to have been involved in arranging this loan facility, which will hopefully meet Bibby Line Group’s key financing requirements in the current challenging environment.”
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