Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In February 2018, a syndicate of 12 Chinese, international, and Australian banks — including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) — entered into a $1.4 billion USD secured syndicated term loan facility agreement with Fortescue Metals Group Limited (FMG). ICBC and ANZ served as the arrangers of this syndicated loan; ANZ served as facility agent. This loan carried the following terms: a maturity period of four years, a final maturity date in February 2022, a coupon (annual interest) rate of LIBOR plus a fixed margin, a principal repayment of 1% per annum, and was repayable at FMG's option. The proceeds of this loan refinanced and repaid FMG's existing senior secured notes. Record ID#93358 captures this initial loan. On September 26, 2019, FMG completed a partial repayment and entered into an agreement with the existing lenders to extend the maturity of the syndicated term loan; it used $600 million USD in proceeds from its senior unsecured notes and $200 million USD from its available cash to repay $800 million USD of the syndicate loan; for the remaining $600 million USD balance of the syndicated term, it extended the maturity date to June 2025 (an extension of 3.25 years) and otherwise kept the same terms and conditions as the original facility, with the same coupon (annual interest) rate of LIBOR plus a fixed margin, the early repayment option, and principal repayment of 1% per annum. This extension is captured by linked Record ID#93359. On September 28, 2021, FMG entered into another amendment and extension of the syndicated term loan; the facility was increased by $400 million USD ($1 billion USD), and the maturity date was extended to June 30, 2026 (an extension of one year). The terms were otherwise unchanged. The additional $400 million USD was drawn down on December 29, 2021. This extension is captured by linked Record ID#93466. The increase in commitment is captured by linked Record ID#93467.
Staff comments
1. AidData has assumed that all 12 lenders in the initial 2018 syndicated loan participated in this up-sizing. The individual contribution of the 12 lenders to this $400 million USD syndicated loan tranche is unknown. For the time being, AidData has estimated the contribution of ICBC by assuming that each lender contributed an equal amount ($33,333,333.3333 USD) to the syndicated loan. 2. Because the two maturity extensions were the only changes to the loan terms, AidData has coded this transaction as securitized as the original 2018 syndicated facility was such. 3. AidData has treated the $400 million USD upsizing as a de facto new loan commitment, and coded it accordingly. Moreover, AidData has coded the maturity period as 4.75 years because, while the original 2018 facility's two extensions had given it an maturity period of 8.25 years and a final maturity date in June 2026, this $400 million USD commitment was an entirely new commitment in September 2021; ergo, its effective maturity period was 4.75 years, as the final maturity for the entire facility was June 2026.