Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On 29 February 2016, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of 19 banks — including Bank of China and ICBC — entered into a €1.6 billion EUR syndicated loan agreement with EP Infrastructure, a.s. (“EPIF”) — a Czech-based infrastructure holding company primarily active in the gas, electricity, and heat sectors across Central Europe. This loan was divided into four tranches: Facility A (€533 million EUR); Facility B1 (€304 million EUR); Facility B2 (€229 million EUR); and Facility C (€534 million EUR). The maturity of the loan is staggered — three years for Facility A, four years for Facilities B1 and B2, and five years for Facility C — and the interest rate is EURIBOR plus an applicable margin. The proceeds were used by the borrower to finance general corporate purposes, including refinancing of existing debt. While Bank of China contributed €84.21 million EUR ($92 million USD) to this loan (Record ID #109709), ICBC (€84.21 million EUR) (Record ID #109710), other banks also contributed: BofA Securities (€84.21 million EUR), CaixaBank (€84.21 million EUR), Citigroup (€84.21 million EUR), Commerzbank (€84.21 million EUR), CSOB (€84.21 million EUR), Erste Bank (€84.21 million EUR), ING Group (€84.21 million EUR), Intesa Sanpaolo (€84.21 million EUR), Komercni Banka (€84.21 million EUR), Raiffeisen Banking Group (€84.21 million EUR), Sberbank (€84.21 million EUR), Slovenska sporitelna (€84.21 million EUR), Societe Generale (€84.21 million EUR), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (€84.21 million EUR), Tatra Bank (€84.21 million EUR), UniCredit (€84.21 million EUR), and VUB Banka (€84.21 million EUR). On 21 June 2017, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of over 25 banks — including Bank of China (Hungary) and ICBC (Europe) — entered into a €1.95 billion EUR syndicated loan agreement with EP Infrastructure, a.s. (“EPIF”) to refinance and restate the earlier 2016 agreement. The maturity of the loan ranges from three to five years depending on the facility, and the interest rate is EURIBOR plus an applicable margin. The proceeds were used by the borrower to finance general corporate purposes, including refinancing of existing debt. While Bank of China (Hungary) contributed to this loan (Record ID #109711) and ICBC (Europe) contributed to this loan (Record ID #109712), the following lenders also participated: CaixaBank, Česká spořitelna, Citibank, Commerzbank, ING Belgium, Slovenská sporiteľňa, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe, UniCredit, Banca IMI, HSBC, Raiffeisenbank, Raiffeisen Bank International, Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich, Tatra banka, Československá obchodná banka, Komerční banka, Sberbank CZ, and Sberbank Hungary. On 19 July 2018, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of over 25 banks — including Bank of China (Hungary) and ICBC (Europe) Poland Branch and ICBC Prague Branch — entered into a €1.5 billion EUR syndicated loan agreement with EP Infrastructure, a.s. (“EPIF”) to refinance the prior 2017 facility. The loan was divided into three facilities: Facility A (€750 million EUR) maturing 19 July 2022; Facility B (€500 million EUR) maturing 19 July 2023; and a revolving Facility C (€250 million EUR) also maturing 19 July 2023. The interest rate is EURIBOR plus an applicable margin. The proceeds were used by the borrower to finance general corporate purposes, including refinancing of existing debt. While Bank of China (Hungary) contributed to this loan (Record ID#109713), ICBC (Europe) Poland Branch contributed to this loan (Record ID #109714), and ICBC Prague Branch contributed to this loan (Record ID #110742), the following lenders also participated: Banca IMI, CaixaBank, Citibank, Commerzbank, Česká spořitelna, ING Bank, Komerční banka, Raiffeisenbank, Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich, Raiffeisen Bank International, Slovenská sporiteľňa, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe, Tatra banka, UniCredit, HSBC, Československá obchodní banka, and Československá obchodná banka.
Staff comments
1. The loan contract is unavailable. 2. EP Infrastructure, a.s. (EPIF) is a Czech-based infrastructure holding company headquartered in Prague. It operates across Central Europe and is involved in gas transmission, electricity distribution, and heat infrastructure. EPIF is part of the EPH Group, a major European energy and infrastructure group. 3. AidData is unable to estimate the interest rate for this loan because the margin to the EURIBOR-based loan is unavailable. 4. AidData estimates the average maturity of the loan by taking the average of the three tranches (3 years, 4 years and 5 years respectively). 5. For this loan, contributions were not disclosed. AidData has estimated Bank of China and ICBC’s contributions by assuming equal division among the 20 participating banks: 75,000,000 Euros.