French oil and gas marine services group Bourbon announced Tuesday it has signed a sale-and-lease contract for 51 vessels worth up to $1.5 billion (1.1 billion euros) with China's ICBC Financial Leasing. Twenty-four of the vessels are in operation and 27 of them are under construction and will be delivered within 14 months.
ICBC Financial Leasing is a unit of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the nation's biggest lender by assets, that leases ships and aircraft. The agreement is in line with a restructuring programme announced by Bourbon last month and which is aimed at reducing the group's debt. In total, Bourbon plans to divest up to 85 vessels to raise around $2.5 billion.