Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In May 2017, a syndicate of seven banks — including the Macau Branch of the Bank of China (BOC), China CITIC Bank Corporation Limited, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB), the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), and China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd. — signed a €110 million EUR syndicated loan agreement with NavInfo Co., Ltd. (a Chinese digital map provider listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange) to fund its acquisition/investment of a 40% stake in Netherlands-incorporated mapping service joint venture SIWAY Coöperatief U.A. The loan carried a maturity period of three years, an amortizing repayment schedule, and an interest rate based on a floating rate plus a margin of 250 basis points (bps). The proceeds were to be used by the borrower to finance 100% of the costs of its acquisition (an investment in a newly-created company) of a 40% stake in SIWAY, a joint venture of Tencent Holdings Limited via Oriental Power (18% stake) and GIC Private Limited, a government-sponsored investment firm in Singapore via a special purpose vehicle, Rocco, (42% stake). BOC Macau Branch contributed €23 million EUR, as captured by Record ID#102415. China CITIC Bank contributed €12 million EUR, as captured by Record ID#102416. SPDB contributed €12 million EUR, as captured by Record ID#102417. ICBC contributed €10 million EUR, as captured by Record ID#102418. China Merchants Bank contributed €5 million EUR, as captured by Record ID#102419. In addition to the Chinese state-owned banks, the following lenders contributed the respective amounts to the loan syndicate: BNP Paribas S.A. (€25 million EUR) and China Minsheng Banking Corporation (CMBC) (€23 million EUR). BNP Paribas served as the sole mandated lead arranger and bookrunner; the other six lenders joined in syndication. SIWAY was established on December 20, 2016. However, the loan had not been drawn as of May 24, 2017. After the acquisition, SIWAY was expected to acquire a 10% equity stake in Netherlands-based HERE Technologies from AUDI AG, BMW Group, and Daimler AG. HERE Technologies was expected to begin a joint venture (JV) with NavInfo in China to provide content-end and server-end solutions, including map data and dynamic information of China, for clients using HERE Technologies' global location service platform. In September 2017, the NavInfo-HERE Technologies joint venture went operational; however, SIWAY announced that the proposed deal for SIWAY to acquire a 10% stake in HERE Technologies was cancelled because the regulatory review process suggested to SIWAY that there was no practical path to receiving approval for the transaction. Specifically, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)'s review of the deal raised concerns that caused the deal to be abandoned.
Staff comments
1. It is unclear if this acquisition was ever completed; it was meant to back NavInfo's equity in the SIWAY joint venture, whose main purpose was to acquire a 10% stake in HERE. As the acquisition was abandoned after U.S. regulator concerns, it is unclear whether the loan, which was not drawn down as of May 24, 2017 (well after the establishment of SIWAY) was ever disbursed. This issue merits further investigation. For the time being, AidData has coded the project_status field as Pipeline: Commitment.