Norvic Shipping has announced clinching a $42.5m loan with American lenders.
The five-year working capital revolving credit facility “will allow Norvic to grow its existing business and expand into new markets,” according to a LinkedIn post by financial advisers RMK Maritime, which helped arrange the deal with “a syndicate of major US banks”.
Norvic, a company describing itself as a “leading international operator of dry bulk vessels… [with] over 100 ships in the water at any given time,” hasn’t been shy about setting ambitious goals.
Set up a one-man band in Canada 17 years ago, its founder and chairman AJ Rahman is currently moving between 40m tonnes and 45m tonnes of cargo each year.
Rahman said recently in an interview with TradeWinds that he aims to operate 200 or up to 300 ships within the next couple of years.
Alongside bolstering its core business, Norvic also wants to become more involved in dry cargo logistics and is on the lookout for prospective projects and partners.
Rahman moved to Canada from Bangladesh in 1999. Now a Canadian citizen, he is a permanent US resident living in New York and leading a company that employs about 170 people across a network of 11 offices worldwide.
RMK Maritime, led by Richard Moore and Michael Kirk, says on its website that it has helped clients raise more than $2bn in capital and that it has advised in acquisition deals worth more than $3.5bn.
The New York and London-based company last made headlines last month, when it sued Euronav over claims that it wasn’t fully paid in the Belgian tanker giant’s 2018 merger with VLCC specialist Gener8 Maritime. Euronav denies this and has said that it will fight the claim.
