Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On January 29, 2021, a syndicate of nine banks — including the Bank of China (BOC) — entered into a £950,000,000 GBP syndicated multicurrency revolving credit facility (RCF) agreement with Whitbread Group PLC — a British multinational hotel and restaurant company — for working capital purposes. This RCF carried a final maturity date of September 7, 2023 (a maturity period of ~2.583 years), was available for drawdown in GBP or EUR, and carried an interest rate linked to GBP LIBOR (transitioning to SONIA following LIBOR's discontinuation) or EURIBOR plus a margin This was an amendment and restatement of a RCF originally dated November 4, 2011, last amended on September 7, 2015, with the maturity extended from September 2022 to September 2023 and the size of the facility to reduce to £850 million GBP on December 29, 2021 and then to £725 million GBP on September 7, 2022, with a covenant waiver extension for 12 months (until March 2023). Whitbread Group subsidiary Whitbread PLC and Premier Inn Hotels Limited issued guarantees in support of the RCF. The proceeds of this RCF were to be used by the borrower as its primary source of working capital and a standby facility and replace (refinance) the previous RCF. Record ID#100088 captures BOC's contribution. In addition to BOC, the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: Barclays Bank Plc, HSBC Bank PLC, NatWest Markets Plc, Lloyds Bank Plc, Commerzbank AG, DBS Bank, MUFG Bank, Ltd., and Banco Santander S.A. BOC, Barclays, HSBC, and NatWest served as bookrunners. Barclays served as agent. Lloyds served as mandated lead arranger. Commerzbank, DBS, MUFG, and Santander joined as junior lenders. As of February 25, 2021, the RCF was entirely undrawn. Then, on May 25, 2022, a syndicate of seven banks — including BOC — signed a £775.0 million GBP syndicated multicurrency RCF agreement with Whitbread Group for refinancing purposes. This loan carried a maturity period of five years with two one-year extension options and an interest rate linked to SONIA for GBP drawings and EURIBOR for euro drawings plus a margin. This RCF replaced the £850 million GBP facility maturing in September 2023. Record ID#100089 captures BOC's contribution.
Staff comments
1. The individual contribution of the nine lenders to this £950,000,000 GBP syndicated loan is unknown. For the time being, AidData has estimated the contribution of BOC by assuming that each lender contributed an equal amount (£105,555,555.556 GBP) to the loan syndicate. 2. It is unclear whether BOC was a lender to Whitbread prior to the January 29, 2021 £950 million GBP amended-and-extended RCF. This issue merits further investigation.