Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In August 2015, a syndicate of 12 banks — including Bank of China (Hungary) Close Ltd. — signed a $750 million USD syndicated pre-export finance (PXF) facility agreement with EuroChem Group AG — a Zug, Switzerland-headquartered agrochemical-fertilizer company effectively entirely beneficially owned by Russian billionaire entrepreneur and EuroChem Group and coal producer SUEK JSC founder Andrey Melnichenko and with the majority of its production assets in Russia, but other assets in Belgium, Lithuania, China, and Kazakhstan — for refinancing, capital expenditure, and other general corporate purposes. This loan carried a maturity period of four years and a grace period of two years. This loan was secured. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower to refinance part of its debt as well as for capital expenditure and other general corporate purposes. Record ID#100615 captures Bank of China (Hungary)'s contribution. In addition to Bank of China (Hungary), the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: Bank of America Merrill Lynch International Limited, the Luxembourg Branch of Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, the Amsterdam Branch of Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Bank plc, the London Branch of Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A., Natixis, Nordea Bank AB, PJSC Rosbank, Sberbank (Switzerland) AG, Société Générale S.A. (SocGen), and UniCredit Bank Austria AG. All those lenders served as mandated lead arrangers. Deutsche Bank served as facility and security agent. Bank of America Merrill Lynch International served as fixed rate agent. Natixis served as coordinator and documentation agent. Then, on September 13, 2016, a syndicate of 12 banks — including the Bank of China (BOC) and the Luxembourg Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — signed a $800 million USD syndicated PXF facility agreement with EuroChem Group for refinancing purposes. This secured PXF carried a maturity period of five years with a grace period of two years. The proceeds were to be used to refinance part of its debt, namely full repayment of the entire 2015 $750 million PXF facility. Eurochem Trading USA Corp, a Florida-based trading entity of EuroChem Group, issued a guarantee for this PXF.
Staff comments
1. The individual contribution of the nine lenders to this $750 million USD syndicated pre-export finance facility is unknown. For the time being, AidData has estimated the contribution of Bank of China (Hungary) by assuming that each lender contributed an equal amount ($62,500,000 USD) to the syndicated loan. 2. AidData has coded this transaction as a collateralized loan because Bank of America Merrill Lynch International Limited was selected as the security agent (i.e. collateral agent) for the loan. When lenders take collateral as security for their loans, a collateral/security agent is often appointed to enforce rights against the collateral in the event of the borrower's default under the loan.