Japan’s SBI Leasing Services provided financing for an LNG carrier owned by Flex LNG as part of the company’s $2bn fleet refinancing, which was concluded today.

The Tokyo-headquartered company said it had arranged a Japanese operating lease package for the 174,000-cbm LNG carrier Flex Rainbow (built 2018), which will be bought and leased back to New York-listed Flex LNG.

The deal represents the first time Flex LNG has worked with SBI Leasing on finance projects.