Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) advised Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank (“CACIB”) in its role as facility agent and lender on a US$300m term loan facility granted to Global Ship Lease (“GSL”) for the refinancing of ten of its container vessels. The facility was arranged jointly with ABN Amro Bank N.V. (“ABN AMRO”) and Bank of America, N.A. (“Bank of America”).
Loan proceeds will be used to repay in full or in part a total of ten loan packages, cutting the average cost of debt of GSL from 4.57% to 3.98%, “materially below currently prevailing benchmark rates”. There are now no maturities before 2026.
This financing will expand GSL’s lender relationships, broadening its potential sources of capital in the future.
CACIB is the corporate and investment banking arm of the Crédit Agricole Group and supports corporate clients and financial institutions to finance their projects and develop their growth, through products and services in capital markets, investment banking, structured financing, commercial banking and international trade.
ABN AMRO, the third-largest Dutch bank, with headquarters in Amsterdam, which was formed in 1991, is a provider of retail, private, and corporate banking products and services.
Bank of America is one of the world’s leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and mid-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services.
Listed on the NYSE since 2008, GSL is a containership owner with a fleet of 68 ships, all of which are leased to container shipping companies under industry-standard, fixed-rate time charters. They focus on mid-size Post-Panamax and smaller containerships, the workhorses of the global fleet, which tend to serve the faster-growing non-Mainlane and intra-regional trades collectively representing over 70% of global containerised trade volumes.
The WFW Athens Maritime team that advised the syndicate was led by Partner Vassiliki Georgopoulos, supported by Counsel Georgia Asimakopoulos, Associates Charikleia Mavromati and Angelos Michas.
Vassiliki commented: “We are so pleased to have advised the lenders on this major refinancing. We have a long-standing relationship with them which proves our team’s capabilities in performing our legal services to our clients effectively and proficiently”.
GSL CFO Tassos Psaropoulos added: “This is another transformational transaction for us which reflects GSL’s progress over the years, sets the standards for future finances and enables us to take advantage of growth opportunities ahead. Moreover, the reduction in the total number of collateralised assets clearly demonstrates the increased value of the underlying vessels. We would like to express our thanks to the lenders, WFW, our internal legal and finance teams and all the parties involved for their hard work in this transaction”.
