ICBC contributes to a $500 million USD syndicated loan to Investcorp Holdings to fund new acquisitions

Project narrative

On or around early January 2007, a syndicate of 31 lenders (30 banks) — including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — signed a $500 million USD syndicated loan agreement with Investcorp Holdings B.S.C. — a Bahrain-based investment and private equity firm then listed on the Bahrain Bourse (BSE) — to fund new acquisitions. This loan carried a maturity period of five years and an interest rate based on a floating rate plus a margin of 75 basis points (bps) and a commitment fee of 32.5 bps on the undrawn portion. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower to fund new acquisitions. In addition to ICBC, the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: Dresdner Kleinwort, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Arab Banking Corporation (Bank ABC), Arab Investment Company, Bank of America Corporation, the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi-UFJ, Ltd. (BTMU), Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF), Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB), BNP Paribas S.A., Calyon, CIMB Bank Berhad, Citigroup, Credit Suisse AG, Deutsche Bank AG, DZ Bank AG, Emirates Bank International PJSC (EBI), Fortis Bank, ING Group N.V., Kredietbank, Mizuho Bank, Qatar National Bank (QNB), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich A.G. (RZB), Samba Financial Group, Saudi National Commercial Bank (NCB), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC Group), Unicredit S.p.A., WestLB AG, KBC Group N.V., and UBS AG. Dresdner Kleinwort and JPMorgan served as bookrunners. The rest of the lenders joined in senior syndication as mandated lead arrangers except KBC Group and UBS, which joined as arrangers. Because of the popularity of senior syndication with $30 million USD tickets, the borrower decided against a general syndication and increased the loan from its $300 million USD target to $500 million USD.