Expanding Turkish dry bulk player Ciner Shipping Industry & Trading notched up yet another ship financing deal in China, bolstering its already impressive history of leasing transactions there.
Law firm Watson Farley & Williams (WFW), which advised on the arrangement, revealed in a statement that the Istanbul-based company drew $136m in financing from SPDB Financial Leasing for four new buildings at Sumec Marine, as well as for another quartet of unidentified vessels already in the water.
The new buildings are a quartet of Ultramax the company ordered last year at Sumec unit New Dayang Shipbuilding, which are due for delivery in 2024.
According to market sources, the four existing ships are the 35,200-dwt, SPP Shipbuilding-built handysize sisterships Dogan, Erhan, Orhan, and Nedim (all built in 2013).
Three of these handysize had already been financed by SPDB in sale-and-leaseback transactions followed by bareboat charters back to Ciner.
The similarly structured refinancing of the three handysize with the same Chinese leasing house, complemented by a fourth handysize and the quartet of new buildings, is the latest in a long line of such deals for the Turkish player.
Ciner, a company with 22 bulkers and four container ships in the water, has arranged about $950m worth of leasing transactions in China over the past four years — both for secondhand ships and new buildings.
Its other leasing partners in the Far Eastern country include CSSC Leasing, China Huarong Financial Leasing, China Merchants Bank Leasing (CMBL), and Avic Leasing.
The ongoing finance of a large part of this fleet through such leasing deals suggests that neither inflation in Türkiye nor political wobbles in China prevent or discourage established players from conducting business with each other.
Ciner, one of Türkiye’s largest industrial groups, recently quit tankers by selling four Suezmax to John Fredriksen’s SFL Corp.
In exchange, the company is boosting its bulker fleet with 11 handysize, Ultramax, and Kamsarmax new buildings, adding tonnage it plans to employ in its internal soda ash trading operations.
“We’re delighted to have assisted SPDB on these two important Ciner’s financings,” said in a statement Christoforos Bisbikos, who led WFW’s Hong Kong Assets & Structured Finance team.
SPDB is a financial leasing company established by Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co, COMAC, Shanghai State-owned Assets Operation Co. Ltd., and Shanghai Long Hua International Aviation Investment Co.
Apart from shipping, SPDB provides financial leasing for aircraft, aeronautical facilities, transportation, engineering machinery, industrial equipment, infrastructure, and construction.