Thursday 28 Mar 2024
By
main news image

KUALA LUMPUR: Bumi Armada Bhd’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Armada Kraken Pte Ltd, has secured a syndicated term loan facility and a standby letter of credit facility for a maximum aggregate principal amount of US$755 million (RM2.876 billion) to refinance its existing bridge loan and to acquire and convert the Armada Kraken floating production, storage and offloading  (FPSO) vessel.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, Bumi Armada said the facility is intended for Armada Kraken to, among others, refinance its existing bridge loan obtained on March 31, 2014 to part-finance and reimburse all costs and expenses in relation to the acquisition, conversion, refurbishment, mobilisation, transport, hook-up and mooring and installation of the Armada Kraken FPSO vessel, together with all ancillary and related works, pursuant to its bareboat charter with Enquest.

The lenders of the syndicated term loan are: Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Bhd (Exim Bank); Maybank International Labuan Branch; National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC, Labuan Branch; Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd; RHB Bank Bhd, Singapore branch; Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp and The Bank of Nova Scotia, Singapore Branch. The facility agreement is dated July 7, 2015, said Bumi Armada.

Armada Kraken is a private limited company incorporated in Singapore and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bumi Armada Offshore Holdings Ltd, which in turn is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bumi Armada.

The principal activities of Armada Kraken are ship ownership, charterers, managers of ships and vessels and provision of marine support and other services to offshore oil and gas companies. Armada Kraken is the owner of the FPSO vessel named Armada Kraken.

The Armada Kraken FPSO vessel will be chartered to EnQuest Heather Ltd, EnQuest ENS Ltd, First Oil and Gas Ltd, and Nautical Petroleum Ltd at the Kraken Oilfield located in the United Kingdom Sector of the North Sea, pursuant to a bareboat charter agreement inked in 2013.

Bumi Armada will incur finance costs in respect of the facility. The bareboat charter of Armada Kraken, after taking into account these finance costs, is expected to contribute positively to the net assets and earnings of the the group.

Upon full utilisation, the facility is expected to increase the gearing of the group too.

Bumi Armada closed two sen or 1.79% lower at RM1.10 yesterday, with a market capitalisation of RM6.45 billion.

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on July 8, 2015.

      Print
      Text Size
      Share