Bank of China Luxembourg Branch contributes to EUR 1.056 billion Tranche A of $2.45 billion loan to Beijing Automotive Industry Holding for acquisition of minority stake in Daimler AG (Linked to Record IDs #101754, 101755, 101756, 101757, 101758, 101759, 101760, 101761, 101762, 101763, 101764)

Project narrative

In November 2019, Bank of China Luxembourg Branch (BOC Luxembourg) contributed to the EUR 1.056 billion Tranche A of a $2.45 billion loan to Investment Global Co., Ltd. — a special purpose vehicle wholly owned by Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. Ltd. (BAIC) — for their acquisition of a minority stake in Daimler AG. Loan terms include top-level all-in pricing of 117.82bp based on a margin of 100bp over Libor. BAIC would provide a guarantee, and BAIC's newly acquired shares in Daimler would serve as collateral for the loan. Only Tranche B was syndicated. That is, only the four mandated lead arrangers of the entire loan provided Tranche A. BOC Luxembourg was one of four mandated lead arrangers of the loan, along with Credit Agricole CIB, DBS Bank and Natixis Hong Kong branch. Tranche B of the loan was syndicated and in the US dollar amount equivalent to EUR 1.144 billion. BOC Luxembourg did not commit to Tranche B, although BOC Hong Kong (BOCHK) committed $55 million to Tranche B as a mandated lead arranger. In addition to BOCHK and the other three original mandated lead arrangers, 18 banks joined in syndication. Including BOCHK, 10 of the syndicated banks were Chinese, and the combined contribution of Chinese banks to Tranche B was $539 million. For Tranche B, mandated lead arrangers are China Construction Bank (CCB), China Bank of Communications (BoCom), Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), ANZ, Bank of China (BOC), First Abu Dhabi Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo and Mizuho Bank. Lead arrangers are China Citic Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Commerzbank, OCBC Bank, SMBC and Korea Development Bank/KDB Asia. Arrangers are China Everbright Bank, China Guangfa Bank and Nanyang Commercial Bank. Lead manager is Banque Internationale a Luxembourg. Prior to this loan, BAIC bought a 5% stake in Daimler in July 2019. This followed a purchase of 9.7% of Daimler shares in February 2018 by Li Shufu, CEO of Zhejiang Geely Holding. In December 2021, Daimler AG disclosed that BAIC had held 9.98% of Daimler in 2019, and that they had not been required to disclose the change in shareholding because it was less than 10%. Daimler noted that BAIC had agreed not to increase their shareholding any further at that point. The contributions of the Chinese banks to this $2.45 billion loan are captured in the following Record ID #s: BOC Luxembourg in Record ID#101752, BOC Hong Kong in Record ID#101754, China Construction Bank in Record ID#101755, China Bank of Communications in Record ID#101756, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank in Record ID#101757, ICBC in Record ID#101758, Bank of China in Record ID#101759, China Citic Bank in Record ID#101760, Agricultural Bank of China in Record ID#101761, China Everbright Bank in Record ID#101762, China Guangfa Bank in Record ID#101763, and Nanyang Commercial Bank in Record ID#101764.