Norwegian investment company SinOceanic Shipping has snapped up a large MSC containership newbuilding.
The owner, backed by Chinese cash, has agreed to buy a 13,100-teu vessel being built at South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) for delivery in March/April next year.
The ship is costing $156m with a bareboat charter back to MSC for 15 years.
MSC has the option to buy the ship after 12 or 15 years.
To finance the ship, SinOceanic has tapped a loan from Oceanus International Investment, owned by HNA Group of China, which has 33.33% of SinOceanic’s stock. It will also have to sell new debt and equity to finance the post-delivery costs.