Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On March 20, 2018, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of 27 banks — including Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) — entered into three unsecured committed revolving credit facilities (RCFs) worth an aggregate of $1.128 billion USD with E D & F Man Holdings Limited (ED&F Man) — a United Kingdom-based agricultural commodities broker firm — for general corporate purposes. These loans were divided into a RCF with a maturity period of 364 days, a RCF with a maturity period of three years and a U.S. dollar swingline aspect, and a RCF with a maturity period of 364 days for ED&F Man's Brokerage business provided by a select number of lenders. All three RCFs were available for full drawdown and the proceeds were to be used for general corporate purposes. ABC contributed approximately $33.33 million USD to the loan syndicate. BNP Paribas S.A., Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A., and ING Bank N.V. served as as Bookrunners and Mandated Lead Arrangers (BMLAs). Banco do Brasil SA served as Senior Early Bird Mandated Lead Arranger. ABN AMRO Bank N.V., HSBC Bank plc, Natixis, the London Branch of Nedbank Limited, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking (SGCIB), and Standard Chartered Bank served as Early Bird Mandated Lead Arrangers. Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) and DBS Bank also contributed to the loan.
Staff comments
1. As it unclear whether ABC contributed to each loan tranche (one of the RCF expressly had a smaller lender pool than the entire syndicate), to estimate maturity period, AidData has coded the average maturity period of the two tranches ([1 + 1 + 3) / 3 ] = 1.667 and coded it as the maturity period of this record. 2. AidData previously had access to a more open version of "ED&F Man - RCF" which listed ABC, DBS, and CBD as lenders. While it no longer has access to this, AidData had internally recorded their participation and has thus created this project record based on that.