Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On April 1, 2022, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of 16 banks — including the Bank of China (BOC) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — entered into a $3.045 billion AUD ($2.27685 billion USD) syndicated loan agreement with Australia Tower Network Pty Limited (ATN) — an Australia-incorporated special purpose vehicle (SPV) wireless infrastructure company and joint venture of AustralianSuper Pty Ltd (82% equity stake) and Singtel ATN Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-incorporated wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (Singtel) (18% equity stake) — for its acquisition of a 100% stake in Axicom Pty Ltd. The loan was divided into five tranches: a $1.300 billion AUD ($972.05 million USD) term loan tranche known as 'Tranche A' with a maturity period of three years and a final maturity date of April 1, 2025; a $1.300 billion AUD ($972.05 million USD) term loan tranche known as 'Tranche B' with a maturity period of five years and a final maturity date of April 1, 2027; a $41.50 million AUD ($31.03 million USD) revolver tranche with a maturity period of three years and a final maturity date of April 1, 2025; a $3.50 million AUD ($2.62 million USD working capital tranche with a maturity period of three years and a final maturity date of April 1, 2025; and a $400.00 million AUD ($299.09 million USD) CAPEX facility tranche with a maturity period of three years and a final maturity date of April 1, 2025. BOC contributed $86.67 million AUD ($64.81 million USD) and ICBC contributed $43.30 million AUD ($32.38 million USD) to the $1.3 billion AUD three-year term loan tranche, as captured by Record ID#109977 and ID#109978 respectively. In addition to BOC and ICBC, the following lenders contributed to the tranche: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) ($81.90 million AUD; $61.24 million USD), BNP Paribas Fortis S.A./N.V. ($86.67 million AUD), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) ($86.67 million AUD), DBS Bank ($81.90 million AUD), HSBC ($86.67 million AUD), ING Group N.V. ($86.67 million AUD), Mizuho Bank ($86.67 million AUD), National Australia Bank (NAB) ($75.83 million AUD; $56.70 million USD), Natixis ($86.67 million AUD), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC Bank) ($86.67 million AUD), Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) ($81.90 million AUD), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) ($86.67 million AUD), United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB) ($81.90 million AUD), and Westpac Banking Corporation ($73.23 million AUD; $54.76 million USD). BOC contributed $86.67 million AUD and ICBC contributed $43.30 million AUD to the $1.3 billion AUD five-year term loan tranche, as captured by Record ID#109979 and ID#109980 respectively. In addition to BOC and ICBC, the following lenders contributed to the tranche: ANZ ($81.90 million AUD), BNP Paribas Fortis ($86.67 million AUD), CBA ($86.67 million AUD), DBS Bank ($81.90 million AUD), HSBC ($86.67 million AUD), ING Group ($86.67 million AUD), Mizuho ($86.67 million AUD), NAB ($75.83 million AUD), Natixis ($86.67 million AUD), OCBC Bank ($86.67 million AUD), Scotiabank ($81.90 million AUD), SMBC ($86.67 million AUD), UOB ($81.90 million AUD), and Westpac Banking Corporation ($73.23 million AUD). NAB contributed $23.06 million AUD ($17.24 million USD) and Westpac contributed $18.44 million AUD ($13.79 million USD to the $41.5 million AUD revolver tranche. NAB contributed $1.94 million AUD ($1.45 million USD) and Westpac contributed $1.56 million AUD ($1.17 million USD) to the $3.5 million AUD revolver tranche. BOC contributed $26.67 million AUD ($19.94 million USD) and ICBC contributed $13.33 million AUD ($9.97 million USD) to the $400 million AUD CAPEX facility tranche, as captured by Record ID#109981 and ID#109982 respectively. In addition to BOC and ICBC, the following lenders contributed to the tranche: ANZ ($25.20 million AUD; $18.84 million USD), BNP Paribas Fortis ($26.67 million AUD), CBA ($26.67 million AUD), DBS Bank ($25.20 million AUD), HSBC ($26.67 million AUD), ING Group ($26.67 million AUD), Mizuho ($26.67 million AUD), NAB ($23.33 million AUD; $17.44 million USD), Natixis ($26.67 million AUD), OCBC Bank ($26.67 million AUD), Scotiabank ($25.20 million AUD), SMBC ($26.67 million AUD), UOB ($25.20 million AUD), and Westpac Banking Corporation ($22.53 million AUD; $16.85 million USD). In addition to the $3.045 billion AUD in debt, AustralianSuper provided $373.10 million AUD ($278.98 million USD) in equity and Singtel provided $81.90 million AUD ($61.24 million USD) in equity for $455.00 million AUD ($340.22 million USD) in total for the $3.500 billion AUD ($2.61707 billion USD) acquisition. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower to finance its acquisition of a 100% stake in Axicom Pty Ltd (Axicom HoldCo Pty Ltd, Axicom Asset HoldCo Pty Ltd and Axicom Hold Trust) with $1.5 billion AUD for the acquisition and $1.1 billion AUD to refinance existing debt of Axicom. Axicom was Australia’s largest independent provider of wireless infrastructure with 1,700 mobile wireless communications towers across all eight states and territories and major cities across Australia with Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone as its largest customers, from Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA). ATN entered into an agreement with Macquarie on April 1, 2022. The acquisition was completed on May 9, 2022.