Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In May 2019, a syndicate of seven lenders — including the Bank of China (BOC) — entered into a $190 million USD syndicated revolving credit facility (RCF) agreement with Auramet International, LLC — a Puerto Rico-incorporated global physical precious metals merchant and trader headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Auramet Trading, LLC, a Delaware-incorporated metals company based in Teaneck, New Jersey — for refinancing purposes. This RCF carried a maturity period of one year. The proceeds were used by the borrower to replace (refinance) a $185 million USD RCF from May 2018. Record ID#105988 captures BOC's contribution. Then, on August 7, 2020, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of eight banks — including BOC — entered into a $235 million USD syndicated borrowing base facility with Auramet International, LLC and Auramet Trading, LLC for refinancing and working capital purposes. This facility included a $25 million USD accordion feature, to increase the facility to $260 million USD and allowed for additional bilateral transactional credit facilities up to $50 million USD outside the syndicated borrowing base facility. The proceeds were to be used for working capital needs and to replace (refinance) the existing $185 million USD RCF. Record ID#105989 captures BOC's contribution. On July 30, 2021, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of eight banks — including BOC — entered into a $300 million USD syndicated borrowing base facility with Auramet International, LLC and Auramet Trading, LLC for refinancing and working capital purposes. This facility included a $50 million USD accordion feature, to increase the facility to $350 million USD and allowed for additional bilateral transactional credit facilities up to $80 million USD outside the syndicated borrowing base facility. The proceeds were to be used for working capital needs and to replace (refinance) the existing $235 million USD RCF. Record ID#105990 captures BOC's contribution. In addition to BOC, the following lenders contributed to the RCF: ING Capital LLC, Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A. (Rabobank), Macquarie Bank Limited, Mizuho Bank (USA), Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (BBH), HSBC Bank, and CIBC Bank. ING Capital served as mandated lead arranger, bookrunner, and administrative agent. Rabobank served as lead arranger. The facility was oversubscribed in syndication. On July 22, 2022, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of seven banks — not including BOC — entered into a $350 million USD syndicated facility agreement with Auramet International and Auramet Trading for refinancing purposes. The proceeds were used to replace (refinance) the existing $300 million USD facility.
Staff comments
1. The individual contributions of the eight lenders to this $300 million USD syndicated loan are unknown. Therefore, for the time being, to estimate BOC's contribution, AidData has assumed that each lender contributed equally ($37,500,000 USD) to the loan syndicate. 2. Auramet deals in the trade of precious commodity metals such as gold, silver, and platinum.