CIT Maritime Finance is providing joint venture Heron Ventures with a $95.2m senior secured credit facility, it revealed today in a statement.

A bid of EUR 82.5m ($114m) was enough to take the ships of between 65,000-dwt and 175,000-dwt at auction in January.

Andrea Zana, a director of CIT Maritime Finance, said: “This acquisition was complicated by the ships being purchased through a judiciary auction sale in Naples, Italy.

“An