China Development Bank Financial Leasing (CDB Leasing) continues to increase its financial ties with prominent Greek LNG carrier owner Peter Livanos.
The Hong Kong-listed company recently confirmed it has agreed to acquire and lease back another LNG carrier from the GasLog stable of gas carriers.
The latest transaction involves GasLog Partners’ tri-fuel diesel-electric (TFDE) 155,000-cbm GasLog Santiago (built 2013) which has been sold for $151m.
GasLog Partners has agreed to take the ship back on lease, but details of the rate and the tenure of the transaction have not been disclosed.
In previous transactions with CDB Leasing, GasLog companies have typically taken the ships back on five-year leases but without purchase options.
GasLog confirmed it was in the process of securing such a deal at the beginning of August but did not disclose the identity of the ship involved.
In a second-quarter results statement, the company said it had been “pursuing an agreement” for the sale and leaseback of a TFDE LNG carrier.
“While no definitive agreement has yet been reached, the agreement is expected to be executed, and the sale expected to be completed, within the third quarter of 2024,” it said at the time.
Previously, US-listed GasLog Partners, which was merged with parent GasLog in 2023, stated that it operates a fleet of 15 LNG carriers. These comprise 15 TFDE vessels and five steam turbine carriers.
Last year, CDB Leasing agreed to buy the 155,000-cbm GasLog Saratoga (built 2014) and the GasLog Sydney (built 2013) for a combined total of $284m.
GasLog and GasLog Partners agreed to lease back the GasLog Saratoga and GasLog Sydney, respectively, under five-year deals with no purchase option or obligation, but with a profit-share mechanism.
In March 2022, CDB Leasing acquired GasLog’s GasLog Skagen (built 2013) for $123.4m.
Six months before that, CDB Leasing purchased the 155,000-cbm GasLog Shanghai (built 2013) from GasLog Partners for $120m and the 155,000-cbm GasLog Salem (built 2015) from GasLog for $128m.
All three ships were subsequently taken back on five-year bareboat charters with no repurchase options or obligations.
The past couple of years has seen CDB Leasing, part of state-owned China Development Bank (CDB), emerge as a major player in Greek LNG carrier financing.
In June this year, it agreed a sale-and-leaseback deal with George Procopiou-backed shipowner Dynagas LNG Partners for four LNG carriers.
It bought the 149,700-cbm Clean Energy and Ob River (both built 2007), Amur River (built 2008) and the 155,000-cbm Arctic Aurora (built 2013) for a total of $477.5m.
In September 2022, Procopiou struck a sale-and-leaseback deal with CDB Leasing for three LNG carrier newbuildings that were on order in South Korea at the time.
CDB is China’s biggest policy bank and one of the world’s largest institutions supporting domestic and foreign infrastructure projects.
It is one of three Chinese policy banks alongside the Agricultural Development Bank of China and the Export-Import Bank of China.
