CP Ships Limited has closed on a five-year $525 million secured multicurrency revolving credit facility.
The new facility, which is secured on 25 owned ships, replaces two secured
revolving credit facilities, one for $175 million in place since August 2001
and one for $350 million completed in March 2002. It is available for
general corporate purposes including capital expenditure and acquisitions.
Pricing is linked to credit ratings. Based on CP Ships' current corporate
credit ratings of BBB- from Standard & Poor's and Ba2 from Moody's Investor
Services, initial borrowings will be at LIBOR+1.10% with a commitment fee of
0.44% payable on the undrawn portion. Should CP Ships draw more than half of
the facility, the applicable margin will increase by 0.15%.
Citigroup Capital Markets Limited, HSBC Bank plc and ING Bank NV are the
mandated lead arrangers. The facility has been placed with a total of 16
banks with extensive experience of lending to the shipping industry.