World News
Peninsula Expands European Credit Facility
Global marine fuel supplier and trading firm Peninsula has renewed its European credit facility and expanded it by almost a third.
The firm has renewed its syndicated European credit facility and expanded it to $450 million from $350 million previously, a source at the company told Ship & Bunker on Tuesday.
The extended financing will be used in part to cover the firm's moves into supplying LNG and biofuel bunker blends, the source added.
NatWest (RBS) remains the facility agent, with HSBC, Citibank, Bankinter, Lloyds and UBS remaining lenders and joined for the first time by Unicredit.
The renewed facility takes Peninsula's total funding package to more than $1.3 billion.
"The renewal and increase of our European credit facility further supports Peninsula's position as a market leader," John Bassadone, CEO of Peninsula, said in an emailed statement.
"At a time when decarbonisation is at the top of everyone's agenda, our commitment to the supply of lower carbon fuels resonates with our stakeholders to attract the highest quality banking partners.
"This additional funding will allow us to deliver lower carbon solutions to our customers across the globe."
Bunker firms around the world will increasingly need to be taking on greater quantities of credit support from their lenders, both to cope with the possibility of prices returning to last year's record highs and to support their transition to selling more expensive alternative fuels.
"We're delighted to support Peninsula with this transaction, which not only strengthens their liquidity position but has also helped them to diversify their lending relationships by bringing in a new syndicate partner," Larry Dosunmu, an asset-based lending executive at NatWest, said in the statement.
"We're looking forward to growing our relationship with Peninsula and proactively helping to deliver a more sustainable future for the shipping sector."