KUALA LUMPUR: Yinson Holdings Bhd’s Singapore-based subsidiary Yinson Production Offshore Pte Ltd and its project partner Sumitomo Corp have secured a US$670mil (RM2.84bil) syndicated loan facility for the floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) project, FPSO Anna Nery.

       Yinson and Sumitomo Corp inked the facility agreement with ING, Natixis and Standard Chartered Bank as underwriting banks yesterday.

       The agreement was also signed by AmBank, United Overseas Bank Ltd, Mizuho Bank Ltd and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp Limited (HSBC) who are participating as senior lenders.

       In a statement, Yinson said the five-year limited recourse loan would be used to refinance an existing US$400mil (RM1.7bil) bridge loan received in September last year.

       “The loan also will support the ongoing construction of Anna Nery, a floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) project awarded to Yinson by Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) in October 2019. Sumitomo owns a 25% stake in the project,” it added.

       “The success of the deal is a testament to the investor community’s confidence in Yinson’s ability to continue delivering on our commitments and in the robustness of our business strategy,” Yinson's Daniel Bong said.

       Yinson Group chief strategy officer Daniel Bong said the deal, which is believed to be the first of its kind in the FPSO financing space, was sealed due to the group’s long-standing strong relationships with the underwriting banks.

       “The deal was sealed amid significant challenges in the FPSO financing space, which had been compounded over the past year by the Covid-19 pandemic.

       “The success of the deal is a testament to the investor community’s confidence in Yinson’s ability to continue delivering on our commitments and in the robustness of our business strategy,” he added.

       The group said the deal has been positively received by the investment community with several banks expressing interest to participate including Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Bhd which is expected to participate in the syndication phase.

       Meanwhile, Yinson chief executive officer of offshore production Flemming Gr？nnegaard said it was crucial to meet construction milestones in strengthening the support of the underwriting banks for the facility loan. “With support of our client, contractors and subcontractors, we are pleased to have reached the halfway mark of the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning phase of construction as per schedule despite challenging circumstances exacerbated by the pandemic.

       “We have recently completed the final drydocking campaign at Cosco shipyard in China and are well on track for delivery in the last quarter of 2022,” he explained.

       The FPSO is destined for the Marlim field located in the eastern part of the Campos Basin, which is about 150km offshore Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.