CDB and ZTE provide $131 million loan to Cell C (Linked to Project ID#58631)

On December 28, 2015, China Development Bank (CDB) and ZTE signed $131 million facility (loan) agreement with Cell C Limited (or “Cell C”) — a South African telecommunications company — for unspecified purposes. The loan had an interest rate of six-month Libor + a 3.5% margin (calculated as 3.985% using the 2015 6-month average Libor rate of 0.485%), accrued monthly and settled half-yearly. The loan is set to expire on May 20, 2024. A percentage of the capital outstanding is repayable semi-annually based on a sliding scale. The CDB/ZTE financing facility is 50% guaranteed by Oger Telecom Limited. In a 2017 circular to shareholders, Blue Label Telecoms (a majority shareholder of Cell C) listed the disbursed amount as USD 46.245 million, with an undrawn facility of $84.755 million remaining. The balance includes accrued interest of $0.217 million. A Capex loan is used by a company to acquire, upgrade, and maintain physical assets such as property, buildings, an industrial plant, technology, or equipment. In January 2020, Cell C defaulted on a R2.7 billion loan as well as capital plus interest payments on loan facilities from a number of banks, including China Development Bank. This loan followed an initial Capex facility offered in 2013 (captured via Project ID#58631). It is unclear how much CDB and ZTE each contributed to the loan.

Additional details

1. AidData has coded the loan as collateralized because an official source indicates that the ICBC loan ‘shared in the First Ranking Security Interests in the Collateral, on an equal and rateable basis with the Holders and the other Senior Lenders, on the terms set out in the Intercreditor Agreement.’ The same source identifies the property and assets of Cell C Limited as the underlying source of collateral.

Number of official sources

5

Number of total sources

6