The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has successfully closed a record $632.9 million and Euro 499.6 million dual-tenor dual-currency syndicated term loan facility.
Afreximbank announced in Cairo that the general syndication stage of the $632,900,000 and Euro 499,552,000 facility, which the Bank raised in the Eurocurrency Loan Market, was originally signed on 12 May. General syndication lenders signed into the agreement on 30 May, making the facility the largest ever such facility for the Bank.
According to the Bank, the fact that the facility attracted a wide base of lenders from around the globe, but particularly from Asia and the Middle East, is evidence of the confidence which lenders have in Afreximbank.
“With 70 per cent of the commitments coming from Asia and the Middle East, this facility greatly enhances our drive to diversify our liability book by geography,” said Denys Denya, Afreximbank’s Executive Vice President in charge of Finance, Administration and Banking Services.
Mr. Denya said that Afreximbank would use the funds to repay existing debt but would also apply it to funding trade finance and to meeting general corporate purposes.
The Facility is structured as a dual-currency (Euro and US Dollar) and dual-tenor (two-year and three-year) syndicated facility, with about 80 per cent of the total amount falling into the three-year tranche, helping the Bank to lengthen its liability profile in the Eurocurrency loan funding space.
The facility attracted aggregate commitments amounting to the equivalent of $1.36 billion which, following a scale-back, resulted in a final facility size equivalent to $1.16 billion, with 35 banks joining.
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Standard Chartered Bank served as coordinator, bookrunner and agent for the facility and was supported by 13 initial mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners. These are:
- Bank ABC (Arab Banking Corporation B.S.C.)
- Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC
- The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd
- Barclays Bank Mauritius Limited
- Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Ltd.
- Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft Filiale Luxemburg
- Emirates NBD Capital Limited
- Rand Merchant Bank, a division of FirstRand Bank Limited (London Branch)
- HSBC Bank plc.; ICBC (London) plc.
- Mizuho Bank Ltd.
- National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC
- The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited, Isle of Man Branch.
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Source; www.afreximbank.com
