Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On November 13, 2012, a syndicate of 14 banks — including the Bank of China (BOC) — signed a $900 million USD three-year senior unsecured term loan facility with First Gulf Bank (FGB). The senior unsecured facility, with interest priced at 130 basis points over LIBOR. The loan was increased from an originally proposed $800 million USD amount due to demand from banks wanting to join the deal. The purpose of the loan was to support FGB's growth in local and international markets, as well as to diversity the sources of FGB's funding. In addition to BOC, the following lenders contributed to this loan: Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Limited (BTMU), Citi, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Mizuho, National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBA), Standard Chartered, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), Samba Financial Group, Union National Bank (UNB), Al Khalij Commercial Bank, and Arab Bank. In September 2012, FGB mandated BTMU, Citi, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Mizuho, NBA, and Standard Chartered to arrange the loan as mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners.
Staff comments
1. The individual contribution of the 14 lenders to this $900 million USD syndicated loan is unknown. For the time being, AidData has estimated the contribution of BOC by assuming that each lender contributed an equal amount ($64,285,714.28 USD) to the syndicated loan. 2. AidData has calculated the interest rate (1.828%) by taking the average 6-month LIBOR rate in November 2012 (0.528%) and adding a 1.3% margin. 3. First Gulf Bank is majority-owned by the ruling family of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.