Overview

Bank of China provides £500 million GBP loan to Weetabix Limited for unspecified purposes

Commitments (Constant USD, 2023)$858,975,718

Commitment Year•2012Country of Activity•United KingdomDirect Recipient Country of Incorporation•United KingdomSector•Industry, Mining, ConstructionFlow Type•Loan

Status

Project lifecycle

Pipeline: Commitment

Pipeline: PledgePipeline: CommitmentImplementationCompletion

Timeline

Key dates

Commitment date: Jan 1, 2012

Geospatial footprint

Map overview

Visualizes the AidData-provided feature geometry for this project.

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The project is providing a loan for unspecified purposes to Weetabix Limited which is headquartered at Station Rd, Burton Latimer, Kettering NN15 5JR, United Kingdom. More detailed locational information can be found at: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/86435409

Stakeholders

Organizations involved in projects and activities supported by financial and in-kind transfers from Chinese government and state-owned entities

Ultimate beneficial owners

At least 25% host country ownershipAt least 25% Chinese ownership

Funding agencies

State-owned Commercial Banks

Bank of China (BOC)

Receiving agencies

Private Sector

Weetabix Limited

Loan description

Bank of China provides GBP £500 million loan to Weetabix Limited for unspecified purposes in the United Kingdom in 2012

Interest type•Unknown

Narrative

Full Description

Project narrative

Prior to 2012, Bank of China (BOC) issued a £500 million GBP loan to Weetabix Limited — a British cereal manufacturer — for unspecified purposes (as captured via Record ID#89377). Then, in 2012, BOC and China Development Bank (CDB) contributed to a syndicated loan to finance the acquisition of a 60% stake in Weetabix Limited by Chinese state-owned company Bright Food (Group) Co., Ltd. (as captured via Record ID#89221); Bright Food (Group) Co., Ltd. also contributed its own funds (as captured via Record ID#89362).

Staff comments

1. "Bank of China has strong presence in London【中国日报】" mentions that this loan had been "previously provided" before Bright Food's acquisition of a 60% stake in Weetabix Limited; as Bright Food acquired the interest in Weetabix in late 2012, then the £500 million GBP debt finance to Weetabix must have been provided before that date; therefore, AidData has coded 2012 as the commitment year (as this is the latest this loan could have been issued) and marked the commitment_year_estimated? field as True.