Profiting from a relationship with behemoth Petroleos de Brasil, Brazil’s Odebrecht Oleo e Gas is tapping the structured finance for a whopping $1.5 billion. Santander and HSBC are reportedly arranging the deal. Neither bank returned requests for comment.
The notes are backed by two intercompany loans made to Odebrecht Drilling Norbe VIII and Odebrecht Drilling Norbe IX, Dealware SPVs that each own an ultra deepwater drillship, according to a report from Fitch Ratings.
Those vessels will be chartered to Petrobras for a ten-year term. Fitch has rated the deal ‘BBBsf,’ matching the rating of Petrobras.
The expected maturity of the transaction is June 2021.
Bond flows will ultimately come from Petrobras’ payments for use of the vessel. In many ways the deal is similar to the Lancer transaction issued last month, which also involved drill ship financing and Petrobras as an offtaker.
One key difference, however, is that the Lancer vessel has a long history, whereas the vessels in the Odebrecht deal are not even online yet, although their construction is 95.5% complete for one ship and 88% complete for the other.
