The board of C&I Leasing Plc, on Friday said it has acquired two brand new 2018 ‘ASD 2913 Tugboats’ with SIFAX Marine Limited, under the SIFAX C&I Marine Limited joint venture arrangement.
The boats named ‘MV Chidiebube’ and ‘MV Folashade,’ according to a statement to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) by Mbanugo Udenzi & Co., on behalf of C&I, “will be immediately deployed for a long-term contract with Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG).”
C&I Leasing Plc, it would be recalled, had in July 2018 concluded the buyout of a 27.5% minority stake in C&I Petrotech Marine Ltd- its marine business subsidiary, following which it took over complete ownership of six vessels presently deployed in a long-term contract with Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC).
The new vessels, in addition to the buyout transaction, the statement said, “is evident of C&I Leasing’s commitment to expanding its marine business and service delivery in this segment which it entered in 2010.”
The statement quoted Andrew Otike-Odibi, the company’s Managing Director as saying “C&I Leasing Plc is committed to becoming the most preferred Marine partner for the IOCs in Nigeria. We will continue to follow through on all that needs to be done to meet their needs. These new vessels have been built to specification for the assignment ahead and we are confident that they will deliver even beyond expectation. With every new contract and acquisition, we are careful to take learning from the past and improve continuously to serve our clients better. We are sure that they will be very pleased with MV Chidiebube and MV Folashade.”
The statement further recalled that C&I Leasing, which has been in operation for over two decades, during which time it evolved from being a finance leasing company licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 1991 to becoming a diversified, leasing and business service conglomerate providing support services to various indigenous and multinational organizations in West Africa along three lines: Fleet Management, Personnel Outsourcing and Marine Services.