Fairstar Secures Bridge Loan for Forte

Fairstar Heavy Transport secured a bridge loan from the Bank of China to complete construction on its 50,000-deadweight-ton semisubmersible vessel Forte.

The facility provides financing of the third installment of the construction of the Forte, according to a statement from the Dutch carrier. The loan will be repaid at delivery of the Forte by means of the recently signed DNB Bank facility that the company secured last month. The DNB loan terms were based on an eight year amortization schedule repaid five years from drawdown. The interest rate was set at LIBOR plus 300 basis points.

“The commissioning of the Forte has begun and Forte will be delivered on time to begin its work for the Gorgon LNG Project,” Ingmar den Blanken, treasurer of Fairstar, said in a statement.

The Forte was floated from its dock at the Guangzhou Shipbuilding International yard at Qidong, China, in September. Sea trials are scheduled for next April and the vessel is due to be delivered in May 2012. Its sister vessel, the Finesse, is scheduled for delivery later in that year.

Photo courtesy of Fairstar Heavy Transport.