CIT Group announced that CIT Maritime Finance provided a $95.2 million senior secured credit facility to Heron Ventures, a joint venture between Oceanbulk Shipping and ABY Group Holding. The facility supports the purchase of a fleet of 12 drybulk vessels and related assets formerly owned by Deiulemar Shipping of Italy.

Financing from CIT was provided by CIT Bank. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“We viewed this transaction as an ideal opportunity to leverage our existing relationships with Heron Ventures’ partners,” said Svein Engh, managing director and group head of CIT Maritime Finance. “We were able to put our knowledge and experience in the sector to work to support the purchase of these attractively-priced assets in what was a unique and complex transaction.”

Oceanbulk Shipping is a joint venture formed in 2012 between Oceanbulk Maritime and Oaktree Capital Management. It has a current fleet of 37 vessels, 11 of which are on the water today, while the remaining 26 are newbuilds, the bulk of which are delivering in 2014-15, with 3 scheduled for delivery in 2016.

ABY Group Holding is a joint venture between Augustea, Bunge and York Capital, which was formed with the purpose to invest in dry bulk newbuilds and secondary purchases, as well as charter in and charter out dry tonnage. On top of the 12 vessels acquired in the Deiulemar Shipping bankruptcy, ABY Group currently has a fleet of 11 vessels: three on the water and eight newbuilds to be delivered between 2014 and 2016.