Sovcomflot, NYK Pact on Financing 2 LNG Carriers

Russian maritime shipping company specializing in petroleum and LNG shipping Sovcomflot (SCF Group) and NYK Line have announced that they have signed a new $176 million non-recourse credit facility for eight years with three leading international banks.

The banks are: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. of Japan (through its German subsidiary, SMBC Bank EU AG); Société Générale of France; and Shinsei Bank of Japan. The agreement was reportedly signed through joint venture companies belonging to SCF Group and NYK Line.

The facility will be used towards refinancing two ice-class LNG carriers servicing the Sakhalin-2 project, Grand Aniva and her sister ship Grand Elena, which are jointly owned and operated by SCF Group and NYK Line. The vessels transport LNG year-round from the port of Prigorodnoye on Sakhalin Island to customers in Japan, South Korea and China under long-term contracts with Sakhalin Energy, the operator of Sakhalin-2 project. Since LNG shipments began from Sakhalin-2 in March 2009, the two carriers have successfully completed 325 voyages, delivering over 46.5 million cubic metres of LNG to customers.

Grand Aniva (built in 2008) and Grand Elena (built in 2007) each have a cargo capacity of 145,000 cubic metres. The vessels are assigned an ice class of 1C, allowing them to safely operate in challenging ice conditions of the Sea of Okhotsk year-round.

With this financing facility, SCF Group is pioneering the adoption of provisions that enable lenders to comply with the Poseidon Principles – an environmental initiative by leading international banks that promotes a low carbon future for the global shipping industry by establishing a framework for assessing and disclosing the climate change impact of ship finance portfolios.

The Poseidon Principles are consistent with the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) ambition to reduce shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2050.

Nikolay Kolesnikov, Executive Vice-President & CFO of Sovcomflot, said: "We are delighted to have concluded this new long-term financing agreement for our joint venture companies with NYK Line. We are grateful to our long-standing financial partners for their continued support and are pleased to welcome establishing relations with new international lenders."

"SCF Group continues to demonstrate uninterrupted access to ship finance amid market cyclicality, which allows us to maintain a smooth debt repayment profile and a robust long-term liquidity position fully in line with our budgetary targets," Kolesnikov added.

"We are also pleased that this financing allows us to support the Poseidon Principles, a new initiative by the banking community aimed at decarbonisation of the shipping industry, and to promote responsible and sustainable shipping," Kolesnikov said.