Tallink Grupp, the Estonian cruise ferry company, says it is entering into a loan agreement with AS Swedbank to finance the purchase of the 35,000 gross ton cruise ferry Isabelle. "The amount of the new loan is €24 million and the maturity is five years. The loan will be secured with a mortgage on the cruise ferry Isabelle," the company said in a statement.

The purchase of the vessel was initially financed by bank overdrafts that will be refinanced with the mentioned loan. The ship was built in 1989 and Tallink acquired it from Viking Line earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the settlement of the bond issue that took place on 3rd of June has been concluded. The NOK 900 million from the bond issue has been hedged with a cross currency swap until the maturity of the bond. The final interest cost of this bond financing for the company is 3M EURIBOR + 4.88%;

With the proceeds from the bond issue the company prepaid the outstanding loan of EUR 100 million, taken to finance the Superfast vessels in the year 2006. The bank mortgages on the vessels Stena Superfast VII, Stena Superfast VIII and Atlantic Vision (previously Superfast IX) will be released.

After the announced transactions the loan repayment schedules of AS Tallink Grupp have changed and are as follows for the next five years:

2014 €90 million

2015 €90 million

2016 €90 million

2017 €280 million

2018 €207 million