Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On November 28, 2023, a syndicate of 29 banks, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), entered into a $1.848 billion AUD-equivalent (€1.126 billion EUR) syndicated loan agreement with Orora Limited — an Australia-incorporated packaging manufacturer and distributor, specializing fiber and beverage packaging productions such as glass bottles and aluminum cans headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange — to finance its acquisition of a 100% stake of French bottle maker Saverglass SAS. The loan was divided into six revolving credit facilities worth a total of €760 million EUR with maturities ranging from May 2027 to November 2028, a $350 million AUD term loan facility with a maturity period of November 2030, and a $250 million AUD revolving multi-currency facilities with maturity dates ranging from May 2027 to November 2028. The facilities carried an interest rate based on a variable rate with margins from 145 basis points (bps) to 177.5 bps and maturity periods ranging from 3.5 to seven years. In addition to ICBC, the following lenders are known to have contributed to the loan syndicate: Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Crédit Agricole, HSBC, ING Group N.V., Société Générale S.A. (SocGen), Westpac Banking Corporation, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (BBVA), Banque CIC Nord Ouest S.A., BNP Paribas S.A., Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel (CM-CIC), Mizuho Bank, Natixis, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). Citigroup, CBA, Crédit Agricole, HSBC, ING, SocGen, and Westpac served as bookrunners. ICBC, BBVA, Banque CIC Nord-Ouest, BNP Paribas, CM-CIC, Mizuho, Natixis, and SMBC served as mandated lead arrangers. The proceeds were used by the borrower to refinance and replace a $1.05 billion AUD (€629 billion EUR) loan led by Citigroup intended for the acquisition and the remaining portion to finance the acquisition of Saverglass and for liquidity requirements. Saverglass SAS is a France-incorporated company that designed, manufactured, customized, and decorated high-end glass bottles for the premium and ultra-premium spirit and wine markets headquartered in Feuquières, France. In September 2023, Orora announced that it would acquire 100% of Saverglass via the acquisition of all the shares in its parent company, Olympe SAS, from its owner Carlyle Group. The acquisition had a total cost of €1.29 billion EUR, with the syndicated debt and $1.345 billion AUD (€820 million EUR) in equity. The acquisition was completed on December 1, 2023.
Staff comments
1. The individual contributions of the 29 lenders to this $1.848 billion AUD-equivalent syndicated loan are unknown. AidData has assumed each lender contributed to each tranche. Therefore, to estimate the contribution of ICBC to the loan syndicate, AidData has assumed that each lender contributed equally ($63,724,137.931 AUD) to the loan syndicate. 2. It is unclear whether ICBC contributed to each tranche. Therefore, to code the margin on the reference rate and the maturity periods, AidData has taken the average of the known interest margins {[(1.45% + 1.775%) / 2] = 1.6125%} and the average of the maturity periods {[(3.5 + 7) / 2] = 5.25 years} to code as the margin of the reference rate and maturity period, respectively.