Italian shipowner Sider Navi has tapped new lender illimity Bank for cash to buy two secondhand cargoships.
The undisclosed amount of finance takes the form of two loans to partially pay for the 8,050-dwt Sider Bergen (built 2009) and Sider Sonja (built 2008) from a sister company, Nova Marine Carriers of Switzerland.
The ships will support company operations in domestic cabotage trades, according to law firm Watson Farley & Williams (WFW), which advised the bank.
VesselsValue assesses the Sider Berger as worth $7.85m and the sistership at $7.7m.
One of the loans is guaranteed by Italian export credit agency SACE on the basis of the liquidity decree under the government's “Garanzia Italia” (Italian Guarantee) programme.
Sider Navi has nine other vessels, including cement carriers and two handysize bulkers.
The WFW Italy maritime team advising Italy’s illimity was led by partner Furio Samela, working closely with associates Beatrice D’Amato and Sergio Napolitano.
Sider Navi was represented by Gabriella Reccia, general counsel of the Nova Marine Carriers group.
illimity unveiled itself as a backer of Italian shipowners last May and told TradeWinds it was closing in on more maritime deals.
The lender, led by banker and former government minister Corrado Passera, refinanced domestic shipowner Navigazione Montanari in 2021.
A €35m ($42m) loan allowed the shipowner to acquire two product tankers, the 50,000-dwt Leopard Moon and Leopard Sun (both built 2013), from Grindrod of Singapore for $21.4m each.
illimity’s head of small and medium-size enterprises, Enrico Fagioli, said last May that the bank had employed in excess of €85m in shipping, broken down into eight different borrowers.
“We are in the process of completing the due diligence or execution of additional financing arrangements totalling approximately €41m for the acquisition of five vessels operated by four different shipowners and operating in three different market segments,” he said at the time.
