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Overview

Shandong Gold Financial Holdings Group (Hong Kong) provides a $10 million USD loan to Focus Minerals for unspecified purposes

Commitments (Constant USD, 2023)$9,221,416
Commitment Year•2021Country of Activity•AustraliaDirect Recipient Country of Incorporation•AustraliaOverseas Jurisdiction•Hong Kong (China)Sector•Industry, Mining, ConstructionFlow Type•Loan

Status

Project lifecycle

Completion

Pipeline: PledgePipeline: CommitmentImplementationCompletion

Timeline

Key dates

Commitment date
Dec 8, 2021
Start (actual)
Jul 6, 2022
End (actual)
Jul 6, 2022
Last repayment (originally scheduled)
Jul 6, 2025

Stakeholders

Organizations involved in projects and activities supported by financial and in-kind transfers from Chinese government and state-owned entities

Ultimate beneficial owners

At least 25% host country ownershipAt least 25% Chinese ownership

Funding agencies

State-owned companies

  • Shandong Gold Financial Holdings Group (Hong Kong) Co., Limited

Receiving agencies

State-owned companies

  • Focus Minerals Limited

Loan description

Shandong Gold Financial Holdings Group (Hong Kong) provides a $10 million USD loan to Focus Minerals for unspecified purposes

Interest rate (t₀)•3.28813%Interest type•Variable Interest RateLoan tenor•6-month rateMaturity•3 years

Narrative

Full Description

Project narrative

On December 8, 2021, Shandong Gold Financial Holdings Group (Hong Kong) Co., Limited — a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned gold mining company Shandong Gold Co., Ltd. — entered into a $10,000,000 USD loan agreement with Focus Minerals Limited — an Australia-incorporated gold producer with operations based in Coolgardie in Western Australia listed on the Australian Securities Exchange whose largest shareholder is Chinese state-owned gold mining company Shandong Gold International Mining Corporation Limited (62.84%) — for unspecified purposes. This loan carried a maturity period of three years after drawdown and an interest rate of USD LIBOR (later replaced in 2022 or early 2023 by Term SOFR) plus a margin 3% per annum payable quarterly in arrears. This loan was unsecured. As of December 31, 2021, none of this loan was drawn down. On July 6, 2022, this loan was fully drawn down (and thus would mature in July 2025).

Staff comments

1. As this loan was for unspecified purposes (very likely general corporate or working capital purposes) and the borrower drew down the full value of the loan on July 6, 2022, AidData has coded July 6, 2022 as the actual implementation start and end date dates and set the project_status field to Completion. 2. There is disagreement among the annual reports of Focus Minerals Limited as to the interest rate of this loan. "Focus Minerals Limited Annual Report For the year ended 31 December 2021" states the interest rate was 3.5% per annum. "Focus Minerals Limited Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2022" on page 63 states the interest rate was USD LIBOR plus a margin of 3.%, while page 8 claims it was Term SOFR plus a margin of 3% per annum. As LIBOR began to be discontinued at the end of 2021 with SOFR supplanting USD LIBOR (per an Act by the U.S. Congress), it is almost certain that, by December 2022 or the publishing date in 2023, the floating rate of this loan was changed to SOFR, suggesting that it was always USD LIBOR. 3.5% may have been the actual value of the interest rate as of December 31, 2021, already including LIBOR and the 3.0% margin.