The Sultanate of Oman strengthens its maritime transportation capacities

This fund raising, arranged by Societe Generale, enabled the acquisition of ten 50,000 dwt medium-range tankers that will be built by the South Korean Hyundai Heavy Industries group. The ships will be then chartered by Shell Tankers Singapore for seven years.

As a quarter of the global crude oil production transits through the Sultanate of Oman, and traffic is projected to continue to grow, the Sultanate has an advantageous geostrategic position. It is therefore essential for the Sultanate to reinforce its strategic position as a major player in the maritime sector. In order to achieve its ambitions and to answer the region’s needs, it was necessary to open more widely to global banks.

“We are very pleased with the successful close of this landmark transaction particularly in the current environment, a testimony to our current strategy and its robustness.

Beyond the importance for OSC, this deal perfectly meets our Company’s objectives in terms of diversification of funding sources,”said Tarik Al-Junaidi, Chief Executive Officer, Oman Shipping Company.

The success of this fund raising also supports the development of the OSC and the Sultanate of Oman’s projects, particularly with regards to its fleet that will now be able to increase its role of facilitating the Sultanate’s commercial exchanges.

“At the start we set a number of objectives that had to be fulfilled, including finding one single bank able to assist us in raising financing for the acquisition of 10 vessels, raising long-term financing to move towards the asset lifespan, obtaining competitive pricing, diversifying our banking pool and increasing the OSC Group’s visibility within the international banking market. Societe Generale’s commitment to meet all our requirements through an innovative model raised the profile of OSC and attracted liquidity to successfully close this transaction,” said Venugopal Venkatesh, Chief Financial Officer of Oman Shipping Company.

Societe Generale is committed to supporting the long-term development of maritime trade by offering tailor-made solutions of asset and infrastructure finance to its clients.