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Overview

Bank of China contributes to a $340 million NZD syndicated loan to finance the acquisition of Ultrafast Fibre’s Central North Island network

Commitments (Constant USD, 2023)$56,946,347
Commitment Year•2020Country of Activity•New ZealandDirect Recipient Country of Incorporation•AustraliaOverseas Jurisdiction•New ZealandSector•CommunicationsFlow Type•Loan

Status

Project lifecycle

Completion

Pipeline: PledgePipeline: CommitmentImplementationCompletion

Timeline

Key dates

Commitment date
May 15, 2020
Start (actual)
Sep 30, 2020
End (actual)
Sep 30, 2020

Stakeholders

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

Funding agencies

State-owned Commercial Banks

  • Bank of China (BOC)

Cofinancing agencies

Private Sector

  • Bank of New Zealand (BNZ)
  • National Australia Bank Limited (NAB)
  • Westpac New Zealand Limited (WNZL)

Receiving agencies

Private Sector

  • First Sentier Investors (formerly First State Investments)

Loan description

2020 syndicated $340 million NZD loan from BOC to finance the acquisition of Ultrafast Fibre’s Central North Island network

Interest type•Unknown

Narrative

Full Description

Project narrative

On May 12, 2020, it was announced that Australia-based infrastructure investor First State Investments would purchase New Zealand’s Ultrafast Fibre Holdings (UFFH), owner of Ultrafast Fibre Limited (UFF), for a consideration of $854 million NZD ($518.63 million USD) from UFFH's shareholders, electricity distributors WEL Networks Ltd (85%) and Waipa Networks Ltd (15%). To support this acquisition, a syndicate of four banks — including the Auckland Branch of Bank of China BOC) — entered into a $340 million NZD senior syndicated facility (loan) agreement with First State Investments. Financial closure was reached on May 15, 2020. The sale was completed on September 30, 2020. UFF owns and operates a network of over 3,500 kilometers of fibre that provides broadband service to over 237,000 premises in the Waikato, Taranaki, Bay of Plenty and Manawatu-Whanganui regions of New Zealand’s North Island. This was the largest private merges & acquisition (M&A) transaction in New Zealand in 2020.

Staff comments

1. The individual contributions of the four lenders to this $340 million NZD senior syndicated facility are unknown. For the time being, AidData has estimated the contribution of the Auckland Branch of BOC by assuming that the four lenders each contributed an equal amount ($85,000,000 NZD) to the loan syndicate. 2. Australia-based infrastructure investor First State Investments is owned by Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. It is now known as First Sentier Investors. 3. Ultrafast Fibre is now known as Tuatahi First Fibre.