Afreximbank closes $632.9m; €449.6m syndicated loan facility

The African Export-Import Bank has successfully closed a record 632.9 million dollars and 499.6 million Euro dual-tenor dual-currency syndicated term loan facility.
Afreximbank, in a statement on Saturday, said that the general syndication stage of the $632.9m and 499. 6 million Euro facility, which the bank raised in the Eurocurrency loan market, was originally signed on May 12.
General syndication lenders signed 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 and particularly from Asia and the Middle East, is evidence of the confidence which lenders have in Afreximbank.
“With 70 percent 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.
Denya said that Afreximbank would use the funds to repay existing debt and would also apply it to funding trade finance and 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 percent 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 $1.36bn which, following a scale-back, resulted in a final facility size equivalent to $1 with 35 banks joining.
Standard Chartered Bank served as coordinator, book runner and agent for the facility and was supported by 13 initially mandated lead arrangers and book runners.
Credit: News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)