Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On January 8, 2020, a syndicate of six banks — including the Bank of China (BOC) — entered into a $460 million AUD syndicated facility agreement with Southern Cross Media Group Limited, an Australian media company. The $460 million AUD facility consisted of two tranches: a $435 million AUD revolving facility with a maturity period of three years and a final maturity date of January 8, 2023 and a $25 million AUD revolving facility with a maturity period of one year and a final maturity date of January 8, 2021. This facility was secured by (i.e. collateralized against) a fixed and floating charge over the assets of the banking group and its wholly owned subsidiaries and a mortgage over the shares in Southern Cross Austereo Pty Ltd (SCAPL). The facility also included financial covenants that required SCAPL that its maximum leverage ratio remain between less than 3.5 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and a minimum interest cover ratio of 3.0 times. Due to the adverse business conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lenders increased the maximum leverage ratio to 4.5 times EBITDA until June 2021. The proceeds of the $460 million AUD syndicated debt facility refinanced the existing syndicated debt facility by repaying the existing drawn debt of $325 million AUD and served as core debt (i.e. for general corporate purposes) for Southern Cross Media. In addition to BOC, the following lenders, which were all previous lenders to Southern Cross, contributed to this syndicated facility: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), National Australia Bank Limited (NAB), Mizuho Bank, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). The $25 million AUD tranche expired as scheduled. In January 2022, a five-bank syndicate, not including BOC, issued a $250 million AUD facility to refinance the existing $128 million AUD drawn debt of the $435 million AUD revolving facility. Record ID#94344 captures BOC's contribution to the $435 million AUD tranche. Record ID#94345 captures BOC's contribution to the $25 million AUD tranche.
Staff comments
1. "SCA refinances debt facilities through to January 2023", published on December 10, 2019, announced the successful negotiation of the refinancing, but stated that it would not be completed until January 8, 2020. Considering that the maturity dates of the tranches all fall on January 8, AidData is confident that the loan was formally committed and issued on that date. 2. The individual contribution of the six lenders to either tranches of this $460 million AUD syndicated loan is unknown. AidData has assumed lenders contributed to each tranche. For the time being, AidData has estimated the contribution of BOC to the $435 million AUD tranche by assuming that each lender contributed an equal amount ($72,500,000 AUD) to the syndicated loan.