Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On October 26, 2022, a syndicate of five banks — including the Bank of China (BOC) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — $1.5 billion USD (DH5.5 billion AED) syndicated term loan agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company for Distribution PJSC (ADNOC Distribution) — an Emirati fuel and lubricant retailer and convenience store operator listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange that owns retail fuel stations in the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia whose majority shareholder is Emirati state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) — for refinancing purposes. This loan carried a maturity period of five years and an interest rate of SOFR plus a margin of 0.85%. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower to refinance a maturing $1.5 billion USD loan for general corporate purposes issued in October 2017. Record ID#101399 captures BOC's contribution. Record ID#101400 captures ICBC's contribution. In addition to BOC and ICBC, the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC (FAB), Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC (ADCB), and Standard Chartered Bank PLC. FAB served as environmental, social and governance (ESG) Coordinator. Then, in January 2023, the five-bank syndicate entered into an amendment agreement with ADNOC Distribution for the $1.5 billion USD syndicated loan; in the amendment agreement, the loan was converted into a sustainability-linked loan (SLL). As a SLL, the borrower's performance against sustainability indicators would be assess, namely the borrower's ability to reduce its carbon intensity by 25% by 2030 via a reduction of scope one and two emissions, with a penalty or incentive if the borrower failed or met the metrics. This conversion made ADNOC Distribution the first Emirati fuel and convenience retailer to use sustainability-linked financing.
Staff comments
1. The individual contributions of the five lenders to this $1.5 billion USD syndicated term loan are unknown. For the time being, AidData has estimated the contribution of BOC and ICBC by assuming each lender contributed equally ($300,000,000 USD) to the loan syndicate.