KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 11): Oil and gas player Yinson Holdings Bhd and its project partner Sumitomo Corp have entered into a US$670 million syndicated loan facility for the FPSO Anna Nery project, a floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for the Marlim revitalisation project in Brazil.

The agreement, which was entered through its wholly-owned Singapore-based subsidiary Yinson Production Offshore Pte Ltd, also included ING, Natixis and Standard Chartered Bank as underwriting banks.

Besides that, the agreement was also signed by AmBank, United Overseas Bank Ltd, Mizuho Bank Ltd and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp Ltd (HSBC), who are participating as senior lenders.

"The deal 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.

"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 Group chief strategy officer Daniel Bong said in a statement today.

FPSO Anna Nery is Yinson's first Brazil asset and largest project to date. The FPSO is contracted by its client, Petróleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) and is expected to be deployed at the Marlim field in Campos Basin, offshore Brazil by 2023. Sumitomo owns a 25% stake in the project.

According to Yinson, the five-year limited recourse loan will be used to refinance an existing US$400 million bridge loan received in September 2020, and to support the ongoing construction of FPSO Anna Nery.

Yinson's chief executive officer of offshore production Flemming Grønnegaard said that the project team's continuing ability to meet construction milestones was crucial in cementing the support of the underwriting banks for the syndicated loan facility.

"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.

"We have recently completed the final drydocking campaign at Cosco shipyard in China and are well on track for delivery in the last quarter of 2022," he explained.

At 4.15pm, shares of Yinson were trading down nine sen or 1.99% at RM4.43 apiece with a market capitalisation of RM4.86 billion.