Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On February 20, 2017, Compañía General de Combustibles S.A. (CGC) signed an $72 million syndicated loan agreement with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Argentina) S.A., Citibank N.A. (Argentina Branch), Banco Hipotecario S.A., and BACS Banco de Crédito y Securitización S.A.. The 24-month term facility was used to support working capital and capital investments. The first disbursement equal to $64 million took place on February 21, 2017 and the remaining $8 million was disbursed on March 15, 2017. The syndicated loan in US dollars accrued interest at a fixed annual rate of 6.25%. Interest was to be paid on a quarterly basis, and the first interest installment was to fall due on May 21, 2017. Principal was to be repaid in five equal and consecutive quarterly installments, with the first one falling due on February 21, 2018 and the last installment, on February 21, 2019.
Staff comments
1. The financial breakdown between ICBC, Citibank, Banco Hipotecario, and BACS Banco is unknown. Therefore, AidData assumes equal contributions of $18 million for the time being. 2. The China-Latin America Commercial Loans Tracker, which is produced by the Inter-American Dialogue, does not capture this ICBC loan. 3. Argentina-based Compañía General de Combustibles S.A. (CGC) is a leading independent energy company that operates mainly in Argentina and is dedicated to oil & gas and -to a lesser extent- LPG (upstream) exploration, development and production. CGC has an attractive portfolio of oil & gas exploration and production areas in Argentina, and its activity is highly focused on hydrocarbon exploration and production in the Austral Basin, located in the southern Province of Santa Cruz.