YINSON Holdings Bhd through its wholly-owned Singapore-based subsidiary Yinson Production Offshore Pte Ltd and project partner Sumitomo Corporation inked a US$670 mil syndicated loan facility (mini perm) for the FPSO Anna Nery project with ING, Natixis and Standard Chartered Bank as underwriting banks.
The agreement was also signed by AmBank, United Overseas Bank Ltd, Mizuho Bank Ltd and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd (HSBC) who are participating as senior lenders.
The five-year limited recourse loan will be used to refinance an existing US$400 mil bridge loan received in September 2020.
The loan also will support the ongoing construction of FPSO Anna Nery, a floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) project awarded to Yinson by Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) in October 2019. Sumitomo owns a 25% stake in the project.
The deal has been positively received by the investment community with several banks expressing interest to participate, including Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Bhd which is expected to participate in the syndication phase.
Believed to be the first of its kind in the FPSO financing space, the deal was made possible through the group’s long-standing strong relationships with the underwriting banks, according to Yinson group’s chief strategy officer Daniel Bong.
“It was sealed amid significant challenges in the FPSO financing space which have been compounded over the past year by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and evolving investor appetites due to the energy transition,” commented Bong.
“The success of this deal is a testament to the investor community’s confidence in Yinson’s ability to continue delivering on our commitments and in the robustness of our business strategy.”
Yinson’s offshore production’s CEO Flemming Grønnegaard said the project team’s continuing ability to meet construction milestones was crucial in cementing the support of the underwriting banks for the mini perm.
“With support of our client, contractors and subcontractors, we are pleased to have reached the halfway mark of the EPCIC (engineering, procurement, construction, installation & commissioning) phase of construction as per schedule despite challenging circumstances exacerbated by the pandemic,” he noted.
“We have recently completed the final drydocking campaign at Cosco shipyard in China and are well on track for delivery in 4Q 2022.”
The FPSO is destined for the Marlim field located in the eastern part of the Campos Basin, about 150km offshore Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
At 4.15pm, Yinson was down 9 sen or 1.99% to RM4.43 with 1.19 million shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM4.87 bil. – Aug 11, 2021
