Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has entered into an agreement for a JPY 100 billion (USD 988.6 million) loan as it is looking to expand into the liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier and offshore businesses.
MOL said it will use the hybrid loan, which has a maturity date of September 2076, to invest in its growth and enhance the company’s earnings base to boost its business competitiveness, in addition to raising funds for vessel-related facilities.
The loan agreement follows MOL’s structural reforms in dry bulk and containership segments. The company said that it previously focused on making “a swift recovery to a growth trajectory, enhancement of its earnings base targeting the next midterm management plan, and restructuring of its financial base to ensure stable, sustainable growth.”
MOL added that it decided to pursue fund procurement through the hybrid loan “that allows it to balance growth strategies on one hand and financial health on the other.”
Some or all of the principal amount can be repaid before the maturity date, after five years from the loan execution date, upon agreement with the lenders, the company said.
Under the agreement, the lenders may receive repayment of the hybrid loan after general creditors are fully repaid in case liquidation proceedings, bankruptcy proceedings, or rehabilitation proceedings, or similar proceedings outside Japan are set to begin. Additionally, any provision of the loan agreement “shall not in any sense be amended if such an amendment would bring any disadvantage to the company’s general creditors.”