Bank of China contributes to $3.65 billion loan to Borouge for capital expenditure

Project narrative

On December 19, 2021, Bank of China (BOC) contributed an estimated $146 million to a $4 billion dual-tranche unsecured term loan to Abu Dhabi Polymers Company (Borouge), a joint venture 60% owned by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and 40% owned by the Austria-based Borealis, for capital expenditure purposes during the company's initial public offering (IPO). The first tranche was a syndicated conventional term loan sized at $3.65 billion with a maturity of 5 years, an interest rate of 90bps (0.9%) plus contemporary LIBOR, an upfront fee of $20 million, and a bullet repayment clause. The second tranche, which was contributed exclusively by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), was an Islamic facility sized at $350 million with a maturity of 5 years and an unknown interest rate described in recipient sources as a "profit margin amount". Twenty five (25) institutions participated in the lending syndicate. Of these, twenty four (24) are currently known. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), Bank of China (BOC), First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), Intesa Sanpaolo, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), and Société Générale de Banques en Côte d'Ivoire (SGBCI) acted as mandated lead arrangers (MLAs). Citigroup, BNP Paribas, Santander, BofA Securities, Unicredit, Standard Chartered Bank, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), JP Morgan Securities, ING Bank, HSBC, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Credit Agricole CIB, Erste Group Bank, and DZ Bank acted solely as lenders. Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) acted in a currently unknown capacity. In 2022, Borouge reported that it had not repaid any of the loan principle.