Bank of China contributes $447 million to $745 million syndicated term loan to Guangdong Rising H.K. to finance the acquisition of all ordinary shares of PanAust Ltd. (Linked to Project ID#97868)

On March 28, 2015, Bank of China (B)C and China Development Bank (CDB) executed a $745 million USD syndicated term loan agreement with Guangdong Rising H.K. (GRHK) to finance the company's acquisition of PanAust Limited. The Sydney Branch of Bank of China acted as an agent for the lenders. Bank of China contributed 60% of the monetary value of the loan ($447 million USD, as captured via Project ID#97867) and China Development Bank contributed the remaining 40% ($298 million USD, as captured via Project ID#97868). The facility was expected to provide financing to GRHK to facilitate its acquisition of all the ordinary shares of PanAust Limited, an Australia-incorporated mining company and copper and gold producer that owns the Phu Kham Copper-Gold Operation and the Ban Houayxai Gold-Silver Operation in Laos. More specifically, the loan proceeds were to be used to cover up to 85% of the aggregate acquisition price of the PanAust shares to be acquired by GRHK, which were to be acquired at $1.71 AUD per share. On July 20, 2015, the acquisition process was completed and PanAust became a wholly owned subsidiary of GRHK, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Guangdong Rising Assets Management Co. Ltd.

Additional details

1. GRHK's filings with the Australian Securities Exchange indicate that the loan amount is for the "USD equivalent" of at least AUD 732 million. A lawyer advising the two banks on the facility indicates a loan amount of USD 745 million. AidData has chosen to use the USD value in this instance, instead of the minimum AUD equivalent. 2. AidData has calculated the individual contributions by multiplying 745 by 0.6 and 0.4 to calculate BOC and CDB's contributions, respectively. 3. PanAust also owns an 80% interest in the Frieda River Copper-Gold Project, an undeveloped copper and gold project on the border of the Sandaun and East Sepik provinces of Papua New Guinea and interests in Chile.

Number of official sources

4

Number of total sources

4