The Singapore office of Watson, Farley & Williams LLP ("WFW") advised Sevan Marine ASA (“Sevan”) in the acquisition of its minority partner in its Sevan Hummingbird FPSO (the “Vessel”) and in the refinancing of a US$200m bond issue.

After securing funds through the bond issue, Oslo-listed Sevan has paid British energy group Centrica US$39m for the 20% equity it holds in the Vessel, which is working in the UK central North Sea. As part of the deal, Centrica will retain the right to 20% of any profits from any future sale of the Vessel in the next five years.

The Vessel has operated on the Chestnut field in the North Sea, which is operated by Centrica, since September 2008 under a 2.5 year charter, which has extension options for another seven years.

Sevan will use the balance of the cash raised through the bond issue to pay off debt for construction of the Vessel in China and for general corporate purposes.

The WFW Singapore team was led by partner Ken Cheung, who was assisted by Dax Lim.

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For further information, please contact:
Ms Navjote Chan
Business Development Manager
Tel: + 65 6551 9156
E-mail: nchan@wfw.com

Editors’ notes:
1. Watson, Farley & Williams is an international law firm with offices in London, New York, Paris, Hamburg, Munich, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Athens, Piraeus, Singapore and Bangkok. The firm currently has 275 lawyers and over 500 staff.

2. Watson, Farley & Williams is a leading international law firm providing services of high quality and value to clients throughout a range of industry sectors, with particular focus on: Finance & Investment, Maritime, Energy, Natural Resources, Transport, Real Estate and ICT. Lawyers from our international offices work as integrated teams to provide practical, commercially focused legal services. Our locations allow us sufficient geographical spread to be competitive in the global market and to provide consistently high quality legal services to our clients.

All references to ‘Watson, Farley & Williams’ and ‘the firm’ in this document mean Watson, Farley & Williams LLP and/or its affiliated undertakings. Any reference to a 'partner' means a member of Watson, Farley & Williams LLP, or a member or partner in an affiliated undertaking, or an employee or consultant with equivalent standing and qualification