The Maritime Finance team of Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) Madrid has successfully advised Spanish public shipyard Navantia, S.A. in the financing, through a complex tax and financial structure, of two Suezmax vessels for Ondimar Transportes Marítimos, a shipowner integrated into the Ibaizábal group. The transaction, which includes four additional vessels of the same sort, was closed Wednesday, 29 July, with the relevant approvals from the Board of Directors of the yard and Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), the Spanish public holding company. It is envisaged that this order will generate about three million working hours for the Galician facilities of Fene and Ferrol and those in Cádiz (Puerto real and San Fernando).

Navantia is a public Spanish company integrated in SEPI, which owns a 100% of its capital. In turn, SEPI is a public entity within the Finance and Public Administration Ministry (Ministerio de Hacienda y Administraciones Públicas) which acts as a commercial company.

WFW’s team was led by tax partner Luis Soto and asset finance partner Alfredo Cabellos, who joined the firm in May. Senior associate Laura Cadenas was also actively involved along with tax associate Arturo Bueno.

Alfredo Cabellos said: “It has been a pleasure for WFW to assist Navantia in the negotiations for the financing of the construction of these Suezmax vessels. It has been a very demanding transaction that will become a milestone in the market for its technical and negotiating complexity. In that regard, we are confident that the closing will have a positive effect on the market in general and will facilitate future transactions.”