First Ship Lease Ltd., a commercial finance company focused on diverse shipping assets, today announced the successful completion of a $100 million mezzanine financing facility. The mezzanine facility, combined with previous equity financing and senior debt to be raised on a transactional basis, allows First Ship Lease to provide in excess of $500 million in operating and finance leases to shipping and industrial companies that meet its credit criteria. The mezzanine financing was fully underwritten by BTM Capital Corporation of Boston, a subsidiary of Japan's premier bank, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd.; Germany-based HSH Nordbank AG, the world's largest ship mortgage lender; and Vereins -und Westbank Group, a subsidiary of Germany's second-largest bank, HypoVereinsbank.
