New York-listed Danaos Corporation has signed a syndicated loan amounting to US$850 million for the financing of 14 containerships being built in Chinese yards.

Led by Citigroup, the bank syndicate includes BNP Paribas, Alpha Bank, CACIB, Eurobank, KfW, Bank of America, SEB, UBS and E.Sun. Norton Rose Fulbright advised the lenders.

The facility will finance 14 9,200 and 8,258 teu container vessels under construction at the Yangzijiang, Dalian and Huangpu Wenchong shipyards.

The vessels are designed to meet the latest International Maritime Organization requirements for emissions and energy efficiency, making them Danaos’ most sustainable vessels to date.

“The transaction, which was comfortably oversubscribed, demonstrates the continued appetite for commercial debt in the containership space for prime operators, especially for newbuilds on the back of long-term employment coverage, including the larger sizes of the sector," says Yianni Cheilas, co-head of asset finance and head of Greece at Norton Rose Fulbright.