China Eximbank contributes to a €180 million EUR syndicated loan to Roskilde Bank for unspecified purposes

Project narrative

In late April 2008, a syndicate of 11 banks — including the Export-Import Bank of China — signed a €180 million EUR syndicated term loan agreement with Roskilde Bank A/S — a Danish bank and one of Denmark's largest lenders listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange — for unspecified purposes. This loan carried a maturity period of two years and an variable interest based on a floating rate plus a margin of 45 basis points (bps). In addition to China Eximbank, the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB), Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A., Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG (RZB), ING Group N.V., DZ Bank AG, LRP Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz, Lloyds TSB Bank plc, Société Générale S.A. (SocGen), Landesbank Saar, and Salzburger Landes-Hypothekenbank. BayernLB, Intesa Sanpaolo, and RZB served as bookrunners and laead banks. ING served as a mandated lead arranger. DZ Bank and Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz served as lead arrangers. Lloyds TSB served as an arranger. SocGen served as a lead manager. China Eximbank, Landesbank Saar, and Salzburger Landes-Hypothekenbank served as managers. The loan was launched into syndication at €125 million EUR was increased after oversubscription. Roskilde Bank A/S was the eighth-largest bank in Denmark at the time of the Global Financial Crisis, with kr.43 billion DKK ($9.1 billion USD) in consolidated assets as of March 2008. Roskilde held considerable exposure to real estate and construction. The U.S. housing market crisis and the credit crunch that followed caused Roskilde to take larger-than-expected write-downs. On July 1, 2008, Moody's Investors Service downgraded Roskilde's rating. Roskilde attempted to raise additional capital, but seeing no path forward, it required assistance from Denmark's central bank, Danmarks Nationalbank (DNB). RoOn July 10, 2008, DNB entered into an agreement with Roskilde; it would provide liquidity to Roskilde in the form of an effectively unlimited credit facility, with the Danish Private Contingency Association (PCA) guaranteeing the first kr.750 million DKK of any losses for DNB and the Government of Denmark guaranteeing losses beyond that number. In exchange, Roskilde put itself up for sale the same day. After no offers were made, on August 24, 2018, DNB announced that it and the PCA had acquired Roskilde to avoid liquidation. DNB and PCA established an entity called "New Roskilde" to which all the assets, depositors, and other senior liabilities of the "Old Roskilde" were transferred, and made a kr.4.5 billion DKK capital injection into it to help senior creditors to avoid losses and protect depositors. Old Roskilde retained subordinated liabilities and equity which began insolvency proceedings. Via various debt-for-equity swaps, the Government of Denmark invested kr.12.4 billion DKK in Roskilde's equity and debt as of the end of 2010, with an outstanding loss of kr.8.9 billion DKK, not including interest, commissions earned, and later gains on asset sales.