CDB provides $181.5 million loan to Sudatel to convert vendor financing into long-term debt

On May 30, 2014, Sudatel Telecom Group Limited ('Sudatel') — a telecommunications and Internet service provider in Sudan that is more than 60% owned by the Sudanese Government — and China Development Bank (CDB) signed a $181.5 million (EUR 147.7 million) loan agreement. The loan carried a 9-year maturity, a 2-year grace period, and an interest rate of LIBOR plus a 4.5% margin. The borrower was expected to use the proceeds of the loan to convert vendor financing into long-term debt. The loan was guaranteed by an unknown entity. In 2017, the loan's guarantor instructed Sudatel to suspend principal and interest repayments to the lender. The guarantor lifted the suspension in 2018, but Sudatel had still not made any principal and interest repayments to the lender as of December 31, 2020. The loan's amount outstanding was $220.2 million (EUR 179.2 million) as of December 31, 2020. According to the audited financial statements of Sudatel Telecom Group Limited, the borrower was in default as of December 31, 2020 'since no principal and/or interest payments [had] been made to CDB since November 2017.' As of 2021 and 2022, Sudatel's management ‘confirmed that they [were] in the process of renegotiating the terms of the loan with CDB' and that 'as soon as the loan will be rescheduled and new loan agreement will be signed the [repayments] as per new agreement will be initiated.'

Additional details

1. Sudatel Telecom Group Limited was previously known as Sudan Telecommunication Company Limited. 2. AidData has estimated the all-in interest rate by adding 4.5% to average 6-month LIBOR in May 2014 (0.323%). 3. This CDB loan is not recorded the China’s Overseas Development Finance Dataset, which Boston University's Global Development Policy Center published in December 2020. Nor is it included in the database of Chinese loan commitments that SAIS-CARI released in 2020 and re-released in 2021. 4. Given that Sudatel is a state-owned Sudanese company, the most likely guarantor of the CDB loan is the Government of Sudan. However, AidData has not yet independently confirmed that the Government of Sudan is the guarantor. This issue requires further investigation.

Number of official sources

7

Number of total sources

7