Vroon Group

Despite the worldwide slowdown, demand for financing is huge in the shipping industry. When dynamic and ambitious international shipping company Vroon BV was seeking a credit facility for six newbuild vessels last spring, NIBC – a specialist in ship finance and long-standing relationship bank to Vroon – was the natural partner to turn to.

 

 

The international transport market has been hard hit by the crisis, so financing shipping transactions is not without risk. It was unsure whether Vroon would secure sufficient transport contracts for its newbuild vessels in a timely manner.

 

To address this complex challenge, we combined our familiarity with the shipping market with our innate resourcefulness. We structured the transaction around a guarantee introduced by the Dutch government in 2009 to stimulate lending. This GO facility guarantees a lender 50% of the potential loss on loans to entrepreneurial, growth-oriented Dutch companies.

 

And realising that Vroon might struggle to close transport contracts for newbuild vessels due to the economic storm, we sought alternative ways for the well-diversified shipping company to finance the loan, using the steady cash flows from its other activities.

 

“We were impressed by the professionalism and flexibility of the NIBC team, who arranged this financing within a short time. They enabled us to realise our ambitious growth plans,” says Coco Vroon, the ship owner’s managing director.

 

NIBC acted as Mandated Lead Arranger and financed the euro-denominated tranche of this EUR 45 million and USD 60 million transaction.