Bank of China contributes to first one-year maturity extension of EUR 1.75 billion syndicated revolving credit facility to Evonik Industries AG for working capital purposes (Linked to Record ID#101437, #101512)

Project narrative

In 2014, Evonik Industries AG utilized the first of two, one-year maturity extension options for the EUR 1.75 billion syndicated revolving credit facility that they signed in September 2013, to which Bank of China was one of the 27 lenders. On September 3, 2013, a syndicate of 27 banks — including Bank of China (BOC) — signed an EUR 1.75 billion syndicated revolving credit facility (RCF) loan to Evonik Industries AG — a German specialty chemicals company — for working capital purposes. The loan is split into two equal tranches of EUR 875 million each. Loan terms include initial maturities of three and five years respectively for each tranche and a two, one-year extension options for each tranche. Upon utilization of the first extension option, the maturities of the two traches increased to four and six years respectively. Interest rates consisted of EURIBOR plus a margin of 35bp on the shorter tranche and 40bp on the longer tranche. The loan terms do not contain any covenants requiring Evonik to meet specific financial ratios. In the event of a change of control for Evonik resulting from a takeover bid, the banks could withdraw the credit facility. This loan refinances the previous EUR 1.5 billion facility signed in 2011. The syndicate consisted of 27 banks that made up Evonik Industries' core banking group. Mandated lead arrangers & bookrunners were Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bank of China, Barclays, BayernLB, BNP Paribas, Citi, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, DZ Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, Mizuho, Morgan Stanley, SEB, Société Générale, Standard Chartered, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and UniCredit. Lead arrangers were Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and WGZ Bank. Coordinators were Barclays, BNP Paribas, and Unicredit. The facility agent was Deutsche Bank. Bank of China's contribution to this loan is captured in this Record ID#101437. ICBC's contribution to the loan is captured in Record ID#101438. Both one-year extension options for this loan were utilized. Record ID #s #101511 and #101512 capture Bank of China's contributions to the extensions in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Record ID #s #101513 and #101514 capture ICBC's contributions to the extensions in 2014 and 2015, respectively. As of December 31, 2016, the loan had never been drawn. On June 20, 2017, Evonik Industries AG refinanced this loan at the same amount, with a reduced syndicate of 18 banks and an initial maturity of five years with two one-year extension options. The loan is split into two equal tranches, with original maturities of three and five years until September 2016 and September 2018 respectively. The maturity extension applies to both tranches, increasing their terms to four and six years, until September 2017 and September 2019 respectively.