KfW IPEX-Bank and Fortis Bank to finance Volkswerft Stralsund container ships

Frankfurt am Main (ots) - KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH, acting as lead
arranger and agent, is to finance six 2,500 TEU container ships being
built by Volkswerft Stralsund GmbH for White Dolphin Shipping Ltd.,
Hong Kong. Co-lead arrangers are Fortis Bank SA/NV and Fortis Bank
(Nederland) N.V. The total credit volume is EUR 214.5 million, with
KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH and the Fortis Banks each providing 50% of the
financing. White Dolphin Shipping Ltd. is a subsidiary of Fair Hope
Ltd., Hong Kong, in which the sponsors Delphis N.V. and BoxLog Ltd.
concentrate their joint container shipping interests.

The financing structure incorporates a guarantee by the German
Export Credit Agency Euler Hermes and combines, for the first time,
such guarantee with the new specific CIRR (Commercial Interest
Reference Rate) for ship financings, introduced by the German
Government in the beginning of year 2008 to support the export
activities of German shipyards. The new CIRR scheme provides
borrowers an attractive fixed-interest rate option for its projects
to be financed.

About KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH

KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH is a 100%-subsidiary of KfW Bankengruppe and
provides project and corporate financing as well as trade and export
financing domestically and abroad. Worldwide it conducts all market
activities of KfW Bankengruppe that are carried out on commercial
terms. KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH has been operating as a legally independent
subsidiary since 1 January 2008 and contributes significantly to the
promotional mission of KfW Bankengruppe. It has approx. 490 employees
(as of October 2008) and is represented in the key economic and
financial centres throughout the globe.

About Fortis Bank

Within the framework of recent developments on the financial
markets, the Fortis Group was separated into Fortis Bank (Nederland)
N.V., Netherlands, and the Franco-Belgian-Luxembourg Fortis Bank
SA/NV. Fortis Bank SA/NV's GEPF (Global Export & Project Finance)
department is the competence center for global export-, project- and
PPP finance with 15 network entities worldwide and headed out of
Brussels. GEPF Frankfurt, its German network entity, was responsible
for negotiating and concluding this project in conjunction with the
Transportation department of Fortis Bank (Nederland) N.V. GEPF deals
with medium- and long-term export financing for foreign banks and
importers as well as non-/limited recourse project financing in
developing countries. It also offers customised product solutions for
the mining sector and for project financing within the scope of
public-private partnership arrangements. The Transportation
department of Fortis Bank (Nederland) N.V. provides finance solutions
for the aviation, shipping, offshore and oil service industries.

Originaltext: KfW-IPEX-Bank
digital press kits: http://www.presseportal.de/pm/69662
press kits via RSS: http://www.presseportal.de/rss/pm_69662.rss2

Pressekontakt:
KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH, Palmengartenstraße 5-9, 60325 Frankfurt
Pressestelle: E-Mail: dela.strumpf@kfw.de
Tel. 069 7431-2984, Fax: 069 7431-9409, E-Mail:
info@kfw-ipex-bank.de, Internet: www.kfw-ipex-bank.de