The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) said it will use Islamic law-compliant financing to splash out $350m on five tankers.
The financing, known as a murahaba, sets out a cost-plus-profit terms and lasts for 10 years. The financing was arranged by Standard Chartered, which aslo contrubuted to the deal along with Arab National Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi.
Bahri, which is the third largest tanker operator behind Iran's NITC and China Merchants Group, has 10 VLCCs on order at Hyundai Samho, with five of those set for delivery next year and the other five in 2018.
Earlier this year, Bahri also announced a deal with Arab Petroleum Investments Corp to create a $1.5bn joint venture which would own another 15 VLCCs. Bahri said the joint venture deal would vault it to the number one tanker operator in the world.
