Prokopiou agrees US$1.1Bn sale-leaseback deal on five large LNGCs

George Prokopiou has closed a US$1.1Bn deal to sell and leaseback five 200,000-m3 LNG carriers. 

The deal was agreed with Chinese lender CMB Financial Leasing, according to maritime law specialists Watson Farley & Williams, who advised on the contract.

“This transaction is a testament of CMBFL’s capacity to support its clients in capital intensive projects such as this one which involves the financing of very large LNG carriers,” WFW Lead Partner Christoforos said.

Shanghai-based CMBFL provides financial leasing solutions to large, medium and small businesses across China. It is a subsidiary of China Merchants Bank, the first joint stock-holding commercial bank owned by corporate legal entities in China.

Pure Energy is controlled by Greek shipowner Mr George Prokopiou, founder of Dynacom Tankers, Sea Traders and Dynagas.

In recent years, Dynagas has regularly increased its commitments to build the 200,000-m3 LNG carriers, with some already delivered and a reported eight LNG carriers still under constuction. In early 2023, Dynagas doubled the vessels it had on order with Hyundai Heavy Industries, from three to six. In May 2023, HHI parent HD KSOE filed a contract with Dynagas to build a pair of the 200,000-m3 LNG carriers worth ₩742Bn (US$556M).

As of October, Dimitris Roumeliotis, research analyst at Xclusiv Shipbrokers, told Riviera that the Greek gas carrier orderbook includes 97 vessels, with 52 of them being LPG carriers (including VLACs) and 45 being LNG carriers, collectively valued at US$15.67Bn.

Sixteen shipping companies are behind these newbuilding projects, with Greek owners remaining particularly active this year, having signed contracts for 31 new vessels between January and September, the shipbroker’s analysis said.

Greek owners hold the second-largest orderbook in the gas carrier segment, trailing Japanese shipping companies, which have orders for 113 vessels. Chinese and Singaporean owners follow, with 68 and 61 ships under construction, respectively. The global orderbook comprises a total of 630 gas carriers.