Ferries group ICG announces new financing deal

Group concludes financing agreements with Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland

Ferries operator Irish Continental Group has announced a new suite of financing arrangements for the company.

Following the maturity of its existing debt facilities, ICG said it had concluded financing agreements with Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland.

These include a five-year multicurrency revolving credit facility provided by AIB and Bank of Ireland , extendable by up to two years, comprising a committed €75 million drawing limit and an additional uncommitted limit of €50 million.

The company is also in receipt of a 12-year amortising term loan provided by the European Investment Bank comprising a committed €75 million drawing limit, available on delivery of its new WB Yeats vessel.

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Multi-currency private loan note shelf agreements with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and Pricoa Capital Group comprising total uncommitted drawing limits of $275 million were also announced.

Overdraft

The facilities have also been supplemented with an overdraft and guarantee facility of €16 million from AIB.

The company also announced the redelivery of its high-speed Craft Westpac Express – the Vessel – which had been chartered by US shipping group Sealift since its acquisition in 2016.

The group said it was finalising its fleet operational requirements for 2018 and a decision on whether to charter externally or deploy the vessel within its Irish Ferries services, in lieu of the existing vessel Jonathan Swift, will be announced in due course.

Eoin Burke-Kennedy

Eoin Burke-Kennedy

Eoin Burke-Kennedy is Economics Correspondent of The Irish Times