CIT Maritime Finance is providing joint venture Heron Ventures with a $95.2m senior secured credit facility, it revealed today in a statement.
A bid of EUR 82.5m ($114m) was enough to take the ships of between 65,000-dwt and 175,000-dwt at auction in January.
Andrea Zana, a director of CIT Maritime Finance, said: “This acquisition was complicated by the ships being purchased through a judiciary auction sale in Naples, Italy.
“An especially high degree of legal due diligence, as well as tireless work by multiple parties, was demanded to meet very stringent requirements imposed by the Italian court.”
Sold down the river?
The vessels came onto the market last year after the biggest bankruptcy scandal in Italian shipping history.
Deiulemar Shipping was forced to file for bankruptcy in October 2012 and its tankers were the first to be sold, leaving liquidators to dispose of the remaining bulkers.
However the sale caused controversy after creditors said they had been offloaded for up to $50m below their collective market value.
The reserve price of just EUR 80m was substantially under estimates of between $154m and 160m by three UK-based brokers and there have been suggestions that creditors could challenge the sale.
Malta-registered Heron Ventures is run by Italian shipping veteran Koert Erhardt.
ABY Holdings is a joint venture between Augustea Bunge Maritime and private equity firm York Capital Management established last October.
