Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In December 2023, a syndicate of 14 banks (18 lenders when including branches) — including the Dubai (DIFC) Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), the Bank of China (BOC), the Bank of Communications (BoComm), China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB), and the Export-Import Bank of China — entered into a $11,000,000,000 USD senior unsecured term loan credit facility agreement with the Ministry of Finance of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for general budgetary purposes. This loan carried a maturity period of 10 years and an interest rate of SOFR plus a margin of 100 basis points (bps). The proceeds were to be used by the borrower to finance infrastructure projects as part of its Vision 2030 economic diversification program and for general budgetary purposes of Saudi Arabia. The Chinese state-owned banks together committed approximately $5 billion USD to the $11 billion USD syndicated loan. Record ID#101402 captures ICBC's contribution. Record ID#101403 captures ABC's contribution. Record ID#101404 captures BOC's contribution. Record ID#101405 captures BoComm's contribution. Record ID#101406 captures CCB's contribution. Record ID#101407 captures China Eximbank's contribution. In addition to the Chinese state-owned banks, the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), Mashreqbank, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Citigroup Inc., HSBC Bank PLC, JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., and Standard Chartered Bank PLC. In September 2023, the Ministry of Finance of Saudi Arabia appointed ICBC to serve as coordinator, mandated lead arranger, and bookrunner for a $11 billion USD loan. ICBC began syndication in September. Syndication was completed by late November 2023. This was the biggest syndicated loan to a government in 2023 and the largest loan in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for 2023.
Staff comments
1. While the individual contributions of the 14 institutions (18 lenders when including branches) to this $11 billion USD syndicated loan are unknown, it is known that the six Chinese state-owned banks together contributed approximately $5 billion USD to the loan syndicate. Therefore, AidData has estimated the contribution of each Chinese state-owned bank by assuming each contributed equally ($833,333,333.333 USD) to that ~$5 billion USD portion. 2. In March 2018, a syndicate of banks — including BOC and ICBC — entered into a $16 billion USD loan with Saudi Arabia to refinance a 2016 $10 billion USD syndicated loan (that BOC, CCB, and ICBC all contributed to) for general budget purposes. This loan carried a maturity of five years (maturing in 2023). Record ID#72312 captures BOC's contribution. Record ID#97699 captures ICBC's contribution. It is possible that the 2023 loan refinanced that $16 billion USD loan. 3. The average SOFR rate for December 2023 was 5.34%. Therefore, the interest rate has been coded as 5.34% + 1.00% (100 bps) = 6.34%.