Yinson secures financing for Ghanian FPSO project

by **Cals** Fri 13 Mar 2015, 02:48

Yinson secures financing for Ghanian FPSO project

By Yen Ne Foo / theedgemarkets.com | March 12, 2015 : 7:28 PM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR: Integrated offshore services provider Yinson Holdings Bhd (Yinson) announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary [size=14]Yinson Production (West Africa) Pte Ltd has secured a US$780 million term loan facility.

The five banks offering the facility are CIMB Investment Bank Bhd, Maybank Kim Eng Securities Pte Ltd, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd ([You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Financial Dashboard), Standard Chartered Bank and United Overseas Bank Ltd (UOB) ([You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Financial Dashboard) in their respective capacities as mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners for the facility.

The facility is to part finance the conversion and refurbishment of a floating, production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) for the contract awarded by Eni Ghana Exploration Production Limited (Eni Ghana) on Jan 27, 2015.

The FPSO will process oil and gas from the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) block, located in the Tano Basin, approximately 60 km off the coast of Ghana. The FPSO charter is for a period of 15 years with the option of five yearly extensions.

Yinson (fundamental: 1.50; valuation: 1.5) group chairman Lim Han Weng described the contract as a “game changer”.

“This is by far our largest contract to date, brings us into the top tier of FPSO players and demonstrates the excellent strategic value of our acquisition of Fred Olsen Production in 2013,” he added in a statement yesterday.

The estimated aggregate value of the contract for the firm charter period is approximately US$2.54 billion (approximately RM9.40billion). The estimated total aggregate value is up to US$3.26 billion (approximately RM12 billion), should Eni Ghana exercises all five yearly extension options.

Yinson closed 8 sen or 2.81% higher today, at RM2.93 a share, for a market capitalisation of RM2.94 billion.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)

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