Norton Rose Fulbright advises on green financing of wind turbine installation vessels

The vessels are currently under construction at Hanwha Ocean Co., Ltd, previously known as Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd, in South Korea. The owners of the vessels will be two special purpose vehicles incorporated in the UK, each 100% indirectly owned by Eneti Inc.

The green senior secured export credit term loan facility, which will finance around 65% of the vessels, was co-arranged and co-underwritten by Société Générale and CA-CIB, with Société Générale as ECA agent, Facility Agent, Security Agent, Green Loan Coordinator, Co-bookrunner, ECA Coordinator and Co-green Loan Arranger, and CA-CIB as Co-bookrunner, ECA Coordinator, and Co-green Loan Arranger.

It includes a commercial tranche of up to US$130.8 million, a covered tranche from Korea Trade Insurance Corp. (K-SURE) of up to US$145.2 million, a direct tranche from the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM) of up to US$115 million, and a guaranteed tranche from Eksportfinansiering Norge (Eksfin) of up to US$45 million.

The maturity date of the facility in relation to each vessel is 12 years from the delivery date of each vessel.

The Norton Rose Fulbright team in Paris advising on the facility was led by Partner Christine Ezcutariand included Counsel Paolo Pinna and Associate Constance Ollat, with additional support from Sam Colman and lawyers in the firm’s Amsterdam office.

Christine said: “We are delighted to have been able to assist our clients, Société Générale and Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, with this US$436 million green credit facility to Eneti Inc, which will enable the purchase of two new wind turbine installation vessels. We continue to see increasing demand across this important and fast developing sector, and we look forward to continuing to support our clients in this area as we enter into 2024.”

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