The new-build vessels are expected to cost about $35 million each and DSC is seeking 90 per cent debt finance. Banking sources say that the $63 million loan is likely to have a tenor of 10 years, with a two-and-a-half-year construction period.

'It will be wanting a balloon, maybe for up to 20 per cent,' says a banker looking at the transaction.

'The margin will be flat and, given DSC's owner, fairly low. It will probably be linked to whether the ships are on spot or time charters, but somewhere around 50 bp [basis points] will be the right sort of territory.'