Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On September 4, 2015, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of 20 banks — including Bank of China — entered into a £1.7 billion GBP (approximately $2.6 billion USD) syndicated loan agreement with Worldpay, a UK-based payment processing company that provides technology solutions for online, in-store, and mobile transactions across global markets. The loan comprised three facilities: (i) a three-year £600.0 million GBP bullet term facility (Term Loan Facility 1); (ii) a five-year £900.0 million GBP bullet term facility (Term Loan Facility 2), a portion of which was drawn in US dollars; and (iii) a five-year £200.0 million GBP revolving credit facility (Revolving Facility), which was subsequently increased to £500.0 million GBP in May 2017. The maturity of the loans ranged from three to five years, and the interest rate was LIBOR plus an applicable margin. The purpose of the loan is unknown. While Bank of China contributed to this loan, the following lenders also participated: Bank of America Merrill Lynch International Limited, Barclays Bank PLC, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Goldman Sachs International, Lloyds Bank plc, Mediobanca International (Luxembourg) SA, Morgan Stanley Bank International Limited, The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, UniCredit Bank AG London Branch, Credit Suisse AG London Branch, Mizuho Bank, Ltd., Royal Bank of Canada, UBS Limited, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Limited, Crédit Industriel et Commercial London Branch, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A., and KeyBank National Association.
Staff comments
1. The entirety of the loan contract is not available. 2. Worldpay was a UK-based global payment processing company offering services for merchants to accept credit card, debit card, and alternative payment types. It was formerly part of the Royal Bank of Scotland and became an independent company in 2010. In 2015, it was one of the largest payment processors in Europe and was preparing for its IPO. In 2017, it was acquired by American company Vantiv, thus becoming an American entity since then. 3. AidData cannot estimate the interest rate because the applicable margin's unclear. 4. The individual contributions of the 20 lenders to this £1.7 billion GBP syndicated loan are unknown. For the time being, AidData has estimated the contribution of Bank of China by assuming that each lender contributed an equal amount (£85,000,000 GBP or approximately $130 million USD) to the loan syndicate. 5. AidData estimated the average maturity of the senior facility by taking the average of the three tranches (4.333 years).