Overview

Bank of Communications provides a $500 million USD loan to AT&T Inc. for unspecified purposes

Commitments (Constant USD, 2023)$532,063,190

Commitment Year•2017Country of Activity•United StatesDirect Recipient Country of Incorporation•United StatesOverseas Jurisdiction•United StatesSector•CommunicationsFlow Type•Loan

Status

Project lifecycle

Pipeline: Commitment

Pipeline: PledgePipeline: CommitmentImplementationCompletion

Timeline

Key dates

Commitment date: Dec 4, 2017

Stakeholders

Organizations involved in projects and activities supported by financial and in-kind transfers from Chinese government and state-owned entities

Ultimate beneficial owners

At least 25% host country ownership

Funding agencies

State-owned Commercial Banks

China Bank of Communications (BoCom or BoComm)

Receiving agencies

Private Sector

AT&T Inc.

Loan description

Bank of Communications provides a $500 million USD loan to AT&T Inc. for unspecified purposes

Interest type•Unknown

Narrative

Full Description

Project narrative

On December 4, 2017, the New York Branch of the Bank of Communications Co., Ltd. (BoComm) entered into a $500,000,000 USD term loan agreement with AT&T Inc. — a Delaware-incorporated American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in Dallas, Texas and listed on the New York Stock Exchange — for unspecified purposes. BoComm acted as agent. The entire $500 million USD principal was drawn down by June 2020. On June 22, 2020, AT&T delivered irrevocable notice to BoComm that it would prepay the $500 million USD loan and associated fees and terminate it on June 25, 2020, which occurred as scheduled.

Staff comments

1. There is very little mention of this term loan in AT&T Inc.'s financial statements and regulatory filings, and as such, its purposes are unknown. It is possible that BoComm's loan, which may have been syndicated, was for operations in China. This issue merits further investigation.