Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has advised Fleetscape Capital Limited (Fleetscape) on an innovative financing structure with Macquarie Bank Limited (Macquarie).

Fleetscape, the alternative capital provider to the maritime and offshore industries, entered into the arrangement with Macquarie, in order to provide a more efficient offering to vessel owners looking at higher leverage situations.

The financing provided by Macquarie is structured on securitisation principles and enables Fleetscape to offer sale-and-leaseback or unitranche financing on highly competitive terms. The facility further positions Fleetscape as the premier financing partner for mid-sized and smaller vessel owners and operators seeking to raise innovative asset backed financing beyond the capabilities of their existing banking relationships.

“This deal is strategically important for Fleetscape,” said Ian Mace, global head of ship finance, Stephenson Harwood. “By giving Fleetscape the ability to offer shipping groups more attractive leverage and pricing with regards to sale and leaseback transactions, the structure of this finance arrangement has created an increased group of target customers and increased demand. Our long-standing experience in this area enabled us to provide market-leading expertise to the Fleetscape team, and we look forward to working with them on future deals.”

Guillaume Bayol, managing director at Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. and co-portfolio manager of the Fleetscape platform said: “Fleetscape focuses on providing financing to small and mid-sized shipping groups, a segment that has suffered from significant retrenchment from traditional commercial banks, resulting in many of them being underbanked. This structure gives Fleetscape the ability to offer shipping groups lower and sustainable pricing whilst simplifying our documentation process and increasing our speed of execution. Fleetscape are already seeing an increase in demand from customers, including a number of new financings with target completion dates in Q1 of 2021.”

The Stephenson Harwood team was led by partner Ian Mace, who was supported by partner Don Brown, senior associate Jennifer Ashford, and associate Roxanne Chambers.