International law firm Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised long standing client Nordea on the following two financings:

* For Nordea Bank Norge ASA in relation to a US$125,000,000 term loan facility for SCF. The loan facility was signed on 22 August 2016. Mandated lead arrangers are Nordea Bank Norge ASA, Citibank N.A., London Branch and DVB Bank SE, Amsterdam Branch. The loan facility will finance the acquisition of 9 tankers from Prisco; and
* For Nordea Bank Finland Plc, New York Branch in relation to a loan facility of up to US$372,000,000, comprising a US$200,000,000 term loan, a US$100,000,000 revolving credit facility and an uncommitted incremental credit facility of up to US$72,000,000 to Scorpio Tankers Inc.  The loan facility was signed on 30 August 2016 and will refinance indebtedness on up to 20 product tankers and provide Scorpio Tankers with finance for its general corporate purposes.  ABN AMRO Bank N.V., Nordea Bank Finland Plc, New York Branch and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ) acted as mandated lead arrangers and Nordea Bank Finland Plc, New York Branch acted as agent and security trustee.

The WFW London teams advising Nordea on both transactions were led by London asset finance partner Michael O’Donnell. He was assisted on the first matter by associates Delphine Joly and Juan Sierra, with WFW New York providing Liberian law assistance. On the second matter, he was assisted by associates Nigel Willis and Joanna Goode.

Michael commented: “WFW have acted for Nordea and a number other lenders on their financings for both SCF and Scorpio Tankers over a number of years and we were very pleased to have done so for them again on these two new significant loan facilities. The first helped financed SCF’s acquisition of the Primorsk ships following their successful auction bid, while the second refinances a loan facility documented by WFW New York and with the incremental facility providing an option for the company to refinance indebtedness on certain additional ships”.