Forbes Bumi Armada take-out oversubscribed

The US$276m seven-year loan for Forbes Bumi Armada Offshore Ltd has been oversubscribed,receiving more than US$300m in commitments from seven Indian banks,according to sources.

The seven include the four on the US$175m nine-month bridge that the loan takes out — Bank of Baroda,Bank of India,Indian Bank and Indian Overseas Bank.

The final group may include five to seven banks,one source said. Signing is expected within the next few weeks. The facility’s original target size was US$280m but it has been revised to US$276m by the borrower.

SBI Capital Markets is the arranger on the financing,which is for the construction of a floating production,storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.

The borrower is Singapore-incorporated Armada D1 Pte Ltd,a joint venture between India’s Shapoorji Pallonji & Co,Malaysia’s Bumi Armada Bhd and Mauritian company Clean Environment Investments Co Ltd.

The company will lease the FPSO to Forbes Bumi Armada Offshore,a JV between Bumi Armada and India’s Forbes & Co Ltd.

Forbes & Co is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and has businesses in engineering,shipping and logistics,and transaction management solutions.

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Bumi Armada is a Malaysia-based international offshore oil field services contractor.