LNG supplier and specialist LNG shipowner Avenir LNG has secured a 12-year, $94m mortgage financing from ABN Amro and the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) for three of its six delivered or soon to be delivered newbuildings.
China Exim Bank is providing 60% and ABN Amro 40% of the funds, with an 80% guarantee from China Export & Credit Insurance Corp (Sinosure), covering 70% of the cost of the 7,500-cbm Avenir Ascension and Avenir Aspiration and the 20,000-cbm Avenir Allegiance (all built 2021).
That represents a change of lenders from Avenir's first two ships and also a change of plans from a facility earlier approved for the four remaining ones.
London-based, Norway-backed Avenir financed its first two ships with a three-year, $53.5m balloon-payment mortgage from Danske Bank.
Avenir wrote in its 2020 annual report in August that it had "obtained credit approval for the financing of its four remaining vessels due from the second half of 2021 for up to $133m".
But the Dutch and Chinese lenders told TradeWinds that the deal had to be rejigged to leave out the 20,000-cbm Avenir Achievement (to be delivered 2022). That ship will be financed separately, in connection with a charter for an unnamed project.
ABN Amro global head of transportation and logistics Joep Gorgels declined to reveal the margin. “You could say it was on competitive terms for Avenir as a newcomer and an owner in a relatively illiquid asset class,” he said.
But Avenir’s sponsoring shareholders Stolt-Nielsen, Hoegh LNG and Golar LNG make Avenir an attractive borrower, not least because they can contribute synergistic employment opportunities for the Avenir fleet.
ABN Amro regards LNG as "an important path towards reduced and eventually net-zero emissions", said Gorgels.
"Our Poseidon Principles results are helped by getting these quality ships into our portfolio," he said.
Emile Karsten of ABN Amro’s Oslo team told TradeWinds he has been working with Beijing-based state policy bank China Exim Bank and export credit insurer Sinosure on the project since early 2020.
"Sometimes the deals that take longest are also the best," he said.
Karsten has become something of a specialist in export credit agency (ECA) financing of gas shipping, with Flex LNG and Hoegh LNG financings under his belt.
But Chinese ECA deals take time.
ABN Amro originally tried to finance all six of Avenir's newbuildings under one facility, but lost the first two to Danske Bank because the yards built them faster than the multiparty team could finance them. The third ship almost got away as well, but ABN Amro financed it under a temporary bridging facility until the three-party deal was in place.
Sources on the Chinese side of the deal were unwilling to comment on the record.
Avenir was originally formed with partners Hoegh LNG and Golar LNG to take over the former Stolt-Nielsen Gas, with loans from sponsor Stolt-Nielsen funding its ships and its Higas LNG terminal in Sardinia.
Not all the shipyard prices of the vessels have been officially announced. In financial filings, the company has disclosed the total cost to owner of its fleet as $262m.
Avenir LNG chief executive Peter Mackey did not respond to requests for comment.
