Italy's Grimaldi Group has fixed finance worth €35m ($42.5m) for the second of a new batch of ro-ro vessels ordered in China.
Global law firm Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) advised Spanish lender CaixaBank on the deal with Grimaldi Euromed.
The cash will fund the 7,800-lane-metre Eco Barcelona, due for delivery from China Merchants Jinling Shipyard in January.
Seven more sisterships are on order costing $67.67m each.
The Chinese yard is also building three ro-ros and two ropaxes for Grimaldi-owned Finnlines.
Green credentials
The new vessel will run on Italian domestic and international routes and will be a Grimaldi Green 5th Generation (GG5G)-class ship.
"Thanks to the adoption of numerous innovative technological solutions, those in the GG5G class transport a higher volume of goods without increasing fuel consumption, leading to greater efficiency in terms of fuel consumption per tonne transported," WFW said.
Grimaldi is guaranteeing zero emissions in port, through the use of lithium batteries which are recharged by shaft generators and 600 square metres of solar panels.
The WFW team advising CaixaBank was led by partner Furio Samela, head of the Italian shipping finance team, working closely with partner Michele Autuori and senior associate Antonella Barbarito and associates Beatrice D’Amato, Noemi D’Alessio and Sergio Napolitano.
The cash from CaixaBank represents the second load of newbuilding funds for Grimaldi Group in a little more than two months.
TradeWinds reported in October that Germany's KfW IPEX-Bank has granted a €40m loan to Grimaldi-controlled Finnlines to finance one of its three hybrid ro-ro vessels.
