Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In March 2018, a syndicate of 27 banks — including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — entered into a €6.25 billion EUR syndicated revolving credit facility (RCF) agreement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) — a Netherlands-incorporated automobile manufacturer nominally based in Amsterdam, but in reality headquartered in London, the United Kingdom and listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Borsa Italiana — for general corporate and working capital purposes. The loan was divided into two tranches: a €3.125 billion EUR tranche with a maturity period of 37 months (3.083 years) with a one-year extension option and a 11-month extension option; and a €3.125 billion EUR tranche with a maturity period of five years. The loan was officially an amendment-and-extension (A&E) of a €4.8 billion RCF, split equally into 37-month and five-year tranches, originally signed in June 2015. The loan was intended for refinancing purposes, namely replacing a June 2013 €2.1 billion EUR three-year RCF and a May 2011 $1.3 billion USD five-year RCF that was later increased to €6.25 billion EUR in March 2017, and for general corporate purposes and to finance the working capital needs of the borrower. The amendment-and-extension remained for general corporate purposes and to finance the borrower's working capital needs. In addition to ICBC, 26 other lenders joined the amend-and-extend process, including the following lenders: Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), Barclays Bank Plc, BNP Paribas S.A., Citigroup, Commerzbank AG, Crédit Agricole Group, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A., JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Mediobanca, NatWest Markets, RBC Capital Markets, Société Générale S.A. (SocGen), UBS AG, and UniCredit S.p.A.. As of December 31, 2018, the €6.25 billion EUR RCF was undrawn. In March 2019, a syndicate of 26 banks — but not including ICBC — entered into an amendment agreement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to extend the maturity of the €6.25 billion EUR RCF by one year. ICBC dropped out of the syndicate.
Staff comments
1. It is possible that ICBC joined the loan prior to 2018. However, with no list of lenders on the previous iterations of this loan, AidData is unable to confirm this, and thus treats ICBC as having joined for the 2018 commitment. 2. The individual contributions of the 27 lenders to this €6.25 billion EUR syndicated revolving credit facility are unknown. AidData has assumed each lender contributed to each tranche. Therefore, to estimate ICBC's contribution, AidData has assumed that each contributed equally (€231,481,481.481 EUR) to the loan syndicate. 3. It is unclear whether ICBC contributed to each tranche. For the time being, AidData has assumed it had, but taken the average of the maturity periods of the tranches {[(3.083 + 5) / 2] = 4.0415 years) coded it as the maturity period of this record. 4. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA), now part of Stellantis, was a multinational corporation with strong roots in Italy and the United States that manufactured automobiles, commercial vehicles, auto parts, and production systems. It was established when Turin, Italy-headquartered Fiat S.p.A. acquired a 58.5% stake of Auburn Hills, Michigan-headquartered Chrysler Group, forming one of the largest automaker in the world. Fiat Chrysler's corporate headquarters were domiciled in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, but its "place of effective management" per its own filings and reports was London, the United Kingdom. The holding company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Borsa Italiana, with Exor N.V., the listed holding company of the Italian Agnelli family, being the largest shareholder at approximately 28.98% of common shares as of 2018. As such, without further narrowing information, AidData has coded the United Kingdom to be the recipient of this loan, as its operations are managed there.