ICBC contributes to a $500 million syndicated loan to Absa Bank for general corporate purposes

Project narrative

In June 2019, a syndicate of 19 lenders — including the London Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — entered into a $500,000,000 USD syndicated term loan facility with Absa Bank Limited — a South Africa-based banking and financial services company and wholly owned subsidiary of Absa Group Limited — for general corporate purposes. This loan had a maturity period of two years with the option of a one year extension and an interest rate based on a floating rate plus a margin of 105 basis points (bps). The proceeds were to be used for general corporate purposes, including, but not limited to trade related finance and to fund its lending in South Africa and in its regional operations. In addition to ICBC, the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), Standard Chartered Bank, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Commerzbank, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), HSBC Bank, Mizuho Bank, MUFG Bank, Ltd., National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah P.J.S.C. (RAKBANK), Société Générale S.A. (SocGen), the Johannesburg and London Branches of State Bank of India (SBI), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe (SMBC), the London Branch of Wells Fargo, the South Africa Branch of the Bank of Taiwan, Erste Group Bank AG, ING Group N.V., and JP Morgan Securities. BAML and Standard Chartered Bank served as coordinators, bookrunners, and mandated lead arrangers. ICBC, BNP Paribas, Citi, Commerzbank, FAB, HSBC, Mizuho, MUFG, RAKBANK, SocGen, SBI, SMBC, and Wells Fargo served as bookrunners and mandated lead arrangers. Bank of Taiwan, Erste Group, ING, and JP Morgan Securities served as lead arrangers. SocGen served as facility agent. Bank of America served as documentation agent. Syndication was launched on May 29, 2019 at an initial amount of $300 million USD that was increased to $500 million USD due to oversubscription.