Bank of China contributes €153.75 million EUR to the €2.560 billion EUR tranche of a €4.600 billion EUR syndicated loan for the OXG Glasfaser Germany FTTH Network Project (Linked to Record ID#100797)

Project narrative

On March 8, 2023, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of 16 banks — including the Bank of China (BOC) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — entered into a €4.600 billion EUR ($4.84617 billion USD) syndicated loan agreement with OXG Glasfaser GmbH — a Germany-incorporated fiber infrastructure company jointly owned by Altice Luxembourg S.A., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Altice Group Luxembourg S.à r.l., itself a wholly-owned subsidiary of Netherlands-based telecommunications firm Altice Europe N.V. (50% equity stake) and Vodafone GmbH, the German subsidiary of Vodafone Group plc (50% equity stake) — for the OXG Glasfaser Germany Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Network Project. This non-recourse loan consisted of three tranches: a €2.560 billion EUR ($2.697 billion USD) term loan tranche with a maturity period of seven years; a €1.940 billion EUR ($2.04382 billion USD) term loan tranche; and a €100.00 million EUR ($105.35 million USD) revolver tranche. The proceeds were to be by the borrower to support the network deployment for the FTTH Project, which seeks to provide fiber for up to seven million German homes over six years and require €7 billion EUR in investments. The project included fiber construction in households around, including on its outskirts, Berlin, to begin in the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district during 2024 after approvals and surcharges were completed, allowing OXG's network to reach another 900,000 homes, and 300,000 new fiber connections in Lower Saxony, and smaller builds in Düsseldorf, Mainz, Unna, and Weißenfels. BOC and ICBC each contributed €153.75 million EUR ($161.98 million USD) to the €2.56 billion EUR term loan tranche. Record ID#100722 captures BOC's contribution. Record ID#100797 captures ICBC's contribution. In addition to BOC and ICBC, the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: ABN Amro Bank N.V. (€153.75 million EUR), Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) (€100.00 million EUR; $105.35 million USD), CaixaBank S.A. (€153.75 million EUR), Crédit Agricole Group (€153.75 million EUR), KfW-IPEX Bank GmbH (€307.5 million EUR; $323.96 million USD), La Banque Postale (€153.75 million EUR), MUFG Bank, Ltd. (€153.75 million EUR), National Westminster Plc (NatWest) (€153.75 million EUR), Norinchukin Bank (€153.75 million EUR), Société Générale S.A. (SocGen) (€153.75 million EUR), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) (€153.75 million EUR), Talanx (€153.75 million EUR), TD Securities Inc. (€153.75 million EUR), and UniCredit S.p.A. (€153.75 million EUR). The lenders to the €1.94 billion EUR term loan tranche are unknown. BOC and ICBC did not contribute to the €100 million EUR revolver tranche, which which was provided by eight lenders, each providing €12.50 million EUR ($13.17 million USD). ABN AMRO, Crédit Agricole, KfW-IPEX Bank, MUFG Bank, NatWest, SocGen, SMBC, and UniCredit.