Bumi Armada gets RM2.4b syndicated loan for Kraken FPSO

by **Cals** Tue 01 Apr 2014, 01:29

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Ahmad Naqib Idris Adzman Shah of theedgemalaysia.com

Monday, 31 March 2014 14:31

KUALA LUMPUR (Mar 31): Bumi Armada Bhd announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Armada Kraken Pte Ltd had secured a US$750 million (RM2.4 billion) syndicated loan.

The syndicated bridge loan will be used to finance Bumi Armada'a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel operations in the North Sea' Kraken oil and gas field, according to Bumi Armada's statement to Bursa Malaysia today.

According to Bumi Armada, the loan is provided by Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd, Maybank International, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, United Overseas Bank Ltd, Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Bhd and Korea Development Bank.

“The facility is intended for Armada Kraken to, inter alia, 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 FPSO together with all ancillary and related works required under the bareboat charter,” said Bumi Armada.

Armada Kraken had earlier entered into a bareboat charter contract for the deployment of the FPSO vessel at the Kraken field for eight years. The contract comes with an extension option of 17 years.

Bumi Armada chief executive officer and executive director Hassan Basma said in a separate statement : “The Kraken FPSO in the North Sea marks the start of Bumi Armada’s entrance into the top-tier of FPSO players.

“With a project of such magnitude, it is important to secure the capital required to enable us to see through the project."