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28 March 2024

Lauritzen to get ¥15.5bn loan to buy six ships

Lauritzen to get ¥15.5bn loan to buy six ships. (AFP)

Published
By Agencies

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan's biggest bank by market value, and France's Société Générale will lend ¥15.5 billion (Dh624.4m) to Danish shipper J Lauritzen to buy six ships made in Japan.

"We will make the first order on this facility granted by Société Générale and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi tomorrow," said Birgit Aagaard-Svendsen, said Chief Financial Officer of Copenhagen-based J Lauritzen. "The deals will be more formally announced later."

Nippon Export and Investment Insurance, a Japanese Government-backed export credit agency, will guarantee 95 per cent of the loan, said Aagaard-Svendsen.

The Danish ship owner, which has already ordered the vessels from Japanese shipbuilders including Imabari Shipbuilding Co, is seeing an improvement in its bulk shipping, she said.

The banks agreed on March 16 to provide the ship-owner with funds, a person familiar with the deal said earlier, declining to be identified ahead of an announcement.Shinya Matsumoto, a Tokyo-based spokesman for Mitsubishi UFJ, declined to comment, as did Hiroko Kato, a spokeswoman for Société Générale in Tokyo.