ICBC provides $35 million loan to Compañía General de Combustibles S.A. (CGC) to help it repay debts in 2016

On September 30, 2016, Compañía General de Combustibles S.A. (CGC) signed a $127,289.000 syndicated loan agreement with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Argentina) S.A (ICBC), as administrative agent, for the purpose of repaying another syndicated loan in pesos, as well as other short-term debts. The funds were disbursed on October 5, 2016. Then, on November 8, 2016 the amount of $92,289,000 was amortized before the due date with the proceeds from the Issuance of Negotiable Obligations for local and foreign investors. The syndicated loan in US dollars thus became effective with the lender ICBC for $35,000,000. Furthermore, on November 8, 2016, it was agreed with ICBC to modify: (a) the interest rate by replacing it with a nominal annual fixed rate of 4.5%; (b) the due date to be February 3, 2017; (c) the senior security interest on CGC’s shares to be provided by CGC shareholders (Latin Exploration S.L.U. and Sociedad Comercial del Plata S.A.) to be 14% of capital stock and voting rights; (d) the assignment of the trust ownership as collateral for the collection rights was revoked.

Additional details

1. The China-Latin America Commercial Loans Tracker, which is produced by the Inter-American Dialogue, does not capture this ICBC loan. 2. 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.

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