Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) advised ING Bank N.V.’s Milan branch (“ING”) on two loans totalling over US$100m, one of which is sustainability-linked, granted to Premuda to support both its recently announced management buyout and to refinance the acquisition of two tankers – m.v.s “PS SINGAPORE” and “PS SYDNEY” – both already under its management.
Amsterdam-headquartered ING is one of the world’s largest banks with US$1,020.5bn total assets in 2024. With offices in Genoa and Malta, Premuda, one of Italy’s oldest shipping companies, currently operates a mixed fleet of bulkers and product tankers.
The cross-border WFW Maritime team that advised ING was led by London Assets and Structured Finance Partner Lucy Shtenko, working closely with Associate James Burgess and Trainees Tom O’Kane and Henry Stevenson. WFW Italy Finance Partners Mario D’Ovidio and Furio Samela, Corporate Counsel Giovanni Battista Bruno and Associates Sergio Napolitano and Giulia Chiarvesio advised on Italian law matters.
Lucy commented: “We are pleased to have advised our long-standing client ING on both the vessel financing and the Italian corporate acquisition and management buyout. The breadth of experience shown by the wider WFW team ranging from Italian corporate acquisition to ship finance meant we were ideally positioned to support ING on these two significant transactions”.
Furio and Mario added: “We are very pleased to have advised ING on this vessel financing and on the buyout transaction, which is the first management buyout in the Italian shipping market. The seamless cooperation between our London, Milan and Rome teams added great value and assistance to ING”.
