Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On December 4, 2023, it was announced that a syndicate of 26 banks — including the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) — entered into a €3.000 billion EUR ($3.26150 billion USD) syndicated sustainability-linked revolving credit line agreement with Eni S.p.A. — an Italian multinational energy company headquartered in Rome, one of the "supermajor" oil companies of the world and listed on that the Borsa Italiana and the New York Stock Exchange, but via golden shares held by Italy's Ministry of Economy and Finance (1.997% stake) and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) (28.503% stake), is de facto controlled by the Italian Government — for unspecified purposes. This facility carried a maturity period of five years and a variable interest rate based on a floating rate plus a margin. As a sustainability-linked facility, this facility was linked to two targets of the borrower's "Sustainability-Linked Financing Framework" updated in April 2023, namely Net Carbon Footprint Upstream (Scope 1 and 2) and the installed capacity for the production of electricity from renewable sources The borrower's performance against these two targets would be assessed, with achievement of each target (or failure to achieve) by the borrower leading to a margin ratchet (step up/step down) on the facility. The proceeds of the facility were to be used by the borrower for unspecified purposes, but was expected to strengthen its financial flexibility. Each of the 26 lenders, including ABC, approximately €115,384,615.385 EUR each to the loan syndicate. In addition to ABC, the following lenders contributed to the facility syndicate: Mediobanca, MUFG Bank, Ltd., Citi, Natixis, HSBC Bank, UniCredit S.p.A., Intesa Sanpaolo S.P.A., Bank of America, BNP Paribas S.A., BPER Banca S.p.A., Société Générale S.A. (SocGen), Wells Fargo Bank N.A., Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (BBVA), Banca Popolare Di Milano (Banco BPM) S.p.A., Barclays Bank Plc, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (CACIB), Deutsche Bank AG, DNB ASA, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), Goldman Sachs Group Inc., J.P. Morgan, National Bank of Kuwait S.A.K. (NBK), Santander Corporate & Investment Banking (SCIB), SMBC Bank EU AG, and Standard Chartered Bank plc. Mediobanca served as global coordinator and documentation and facility agent. MUFG served as global and sustainability coordinator. Citi and Natixis served as global coordinators. HSBC, UniCredit, and Intesa Sanpaolo served as bookrunners. Bank of America, BNP Paribas, BPER Banca, SocGen, and Wells Fargo served as mandated lead arrangers. ABC, BBVA, Banco BPM, Barclays Bank, CACIB, Deutsche Bank, DNB Bank, FAB, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, NBK, SCIB, SMBC Bank, and Standard Chartered served as lead arrangers.