Global Ship Lease closes new $268 million five-year credit facility

By Sarah Lizee

Olympia, Wash., Sept. 19 – Global Ship Lease, Inc. agreed to a new syndicated $268 million senior secured credit facility comprised of two tranches with lenders Credit Agricole CIB, ABN AMRO Bank NV, CIT Bank NA, Hellenic Bank PCL and Siemens Financial Services Inc.

The company said it expects to draw down the first$230 million tranche of the new senior loan in full shortly and will use the proceeds to refinance five existing senior credit facilities with maturities in December 2020 and April 2021.

As a result of the first tranche refinancing, three 2000-built 6,000 TEU ships will become unencumbered.

The second tranche of up to $38 million, or 65% of the market value of the vessel to be financed, is available on similar terms until May 2020 to facilitate further refinancing.

The final maturity date of the new senior loan is expected to be September 2024.

Borrowings will bear interest at Libor plus a margin of 300 basis points.

Scheduled amortization is in line with fixed amortization, which would have commenced March 2020 under the refinanced loans, at $5.2 million per quarter.

In addition, the company refinanced all of the existing debt under its junior facility in the amount of $38.5 million, with the only change being to extend its maturity from September 2023 to September 2024, consistent with the maturity date of the new senior loan.

Global Ship Lease is a containership charter owner based in London.

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