Korean liner seeks loan to buy ships

SINGAPORE—Hanjin Shipping Co., South Korea’s largest freight line, is seeking a multimillion US dollar loan to buy four container ships, bankers involved in the deal said.
       The transport company is paying 18.5-percent less interest on the 12-year, $250-million loan facility than on one it got in January, said the bankers, who declined to be named. January’s loan was a similar size and tenor and was also used to buy four freighters that carry 4,300 containers of 20 feet each.
       Hanjin Shipping is buying new vessels to meet rising demand for Asian-made goods by the US and Europe. A record 1,992 boats will be delivered this year to shipping lines, which carry 80 percent of world trade. The deliveries are up 47 percent from 2005, Choi Young Chul, an analyst at Tong Yang Merchant Bank in Seoul, estimated last month.
       The freighter has hired six banks to arrange the loan: BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup Inc., Export-Import Bank of Korea, ING Groep NV, Societe Generale and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., the bankers said.
       The arrangers are marketing the loan to other banks paying 25 basis points on top of the interest margin of 57 basis points over London interbank offered rate, a benchmark for borrowing, bankers said. The three-month rate was fixed Monday at 5.2 percent. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. Including fees and interest, the price is about 60.4 basis points. Bloomberg