First Pre-Salt FPSO Loans Close

About $2bn worth of loan facilities have been closed over the last month to finance the construction of the first floating production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSOs) that will be used in Brazil’s offshore pre-salt oil fields. Most recently SBM Offshore, Queiroz Galvao, NYK and Itochu secured $1bn through a facility that pays 130bp-200bp over Libor during the life of the loan and offered a tenor of 10 years plus construction. Bookrunners and MLAs were ABN Amro, DNB-Nor, Mizuho, Natixis, SMBC, Standard Chartered, with ING acting as coordinator. Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi and Rabobank were facility and documentation agents, respectively. Other MLAs were CIC, DBJ and Nordea. Bookruners were heard coming in with tickets of $100m plus, while MLAs participated with $50m-$75m tickets. This comes after an $812m facility was closed to finance the Guara FPSO, which is being sponsored by MODEC and Schahin Group. About 60% of the facility came from Japanese ECA JBIC, while the rest took the form of commercial bank loan, with Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, ING, Mizuho and SMBC participating. Margins came at just below 200bp over Libor on the 12-year facility.