Law firm Stephenson Harwood (Singapore) Alliance has advised Arcus Infrastructure Partners (Arcus) and Peacock Group Holdings B.V. (Peacock)  on the acquisition of a portfolio of c. 9,000 tank containers, and the associated operating and financial leases, from Gem Containers Limited (Gem).

Arcus is a European independent infrastructure fund manager focused on telecoms, transport and energy and Peacock is an ISO tank container leasing company, headquartered in Singapore and the Netherlands, which owns and operates a fleet of tank containers with capacities between 13,000 and 35,000 litres. This transaction follows Arcus’ recent acquisition of Peacock on which Stephenson Harwood advised, and is Arcus' second investment in the tank container sector.

The acquisition strengthens Peacock’s market position and complements its strategy, as it diversifies its customer base. The acquired fleet consists of a variety of tank container types, early in their asset life cycle, with solid long term leases to reputable clients. The addition of the Gem assets will boost Peacock’s total fleet to c. 16,500 tank containers, resulting in Peacock becoming one of the top six tank container lessors globally. Combining the fleet of Gem assets with Peacock leads to a reduction in average asset age, while increasing the average remaining contract term and offering various operational synergies.  The transaction is expected to complete in the coming weeks.

The Stephenson Harwood team was led by corporate partner Tom Platts, who was supported by senior associates Philippa English and Ben Hickson, and associates Laura Baker and Ming Hui Gan. Finance partner Martin Brown and associate Solveig De Sousa provided support on the financing and specific container leasing aspects. Further support was provided by partner Marta Garcia, and associates Laura Anderson, Seth Crawley, Will Spens and James Gracey.