AIG Commercial Asset Finance (AIGCAF) and its affiliates announced that they have provided a $65 million senior secured term loan to Saltchuk Resources, Inc. (Saltchuk), a Seattle-based family of diversified transportation and petroleum distribution companies. The loan was provided primarily for capital expenditures for Saltchuk’s marine transportation operations, and is secured by various assets.
  
“AIGCAF’s broad maritime finance expertise and long term partnership approach played key roles in our selecting it as a financing source,” said Jim Lawrence, Vice President and Treasurer of Saltchuck.  “We have built multi-generational relationships with our lenders and expect to do the same with AIGCAF.  The financing by AIGCAF will allow us to continue to grow both organically and through additional acquisitions.  We look forward to a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship.”

In 2012, Saltchuk had combined annual revenues of roughly $2.5 billion and has over 6,000 employees.  Through its subsidiary operations, Tote and Foss, Saltchuk is one of the largest domestic marine transportation companies.  Through Interstate Distributor, it is a leading national trucking operation, and through its subsidiaries North Star and Northern Air Services, it is also the largest independent petroleum distributor and all-air cargo operator in Alaska and Hawaii.

AIGCAF’s Senior Vice President of Direct Originations, Kirk Phillips, said that AIGCAF’s extensive experience in both providing financing to the marine industry and in structured finance contributed to successfully closing the transaction. Phillips remarked on the process, “After working closely with the customer to understand its objectives, AIGCAF’s structuring, credit, and legal teams worked diligently to deliver a solution that met the client’s borrowing needs and AIG’s investment criteria.”