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Overview

BOCHK contributes to a €550 million EUR syndicated loan for Geely's acquisition of a 51.5% stake in Saxo Bank

Commitments (Constant USD, 2023)$130,604,410
Commitment Year•2018Country of Activity•DenmarkDirect Recipient Country of Incorporation•DenmarkOverseas Jurisdiction•Hong Kong (China)Sector•Banking And Financial ServicesFlow Type•Loan

Status

Project lifecycle

Completion

Pipeline: PledgePipeline: CommitmentImplementationCompletion

Timeline

Key dates

Commitment date
Jan 1, 2018
Start (actual)
Sep 13, 2018
End (actual)
Sep 13, 2018

Stakeholders

Organizations involved in projects and activities supported by financial and in-kind transfers from Chinese government and state-owned entities

Ultimate beneficial owners

At least 25% Chinese ownership

Funding agencies

State-owned Commercial Banks

  • Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited (BOCHK)

Cofinancing agencies

Private Sector

  • Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ)
  • BNP Paribas S.A.

Receiving agencies

Joint Venture/Special Purpose Vehicles

  • Geely Financials Denmark A/S

Loan description

BOCHK contributes to an EUR €550 million syndicated loan for Geely's acquisition of a 51.5% stake in Danish bank Saxo Bank in 2018

Interest type•Unknown

Narrative

Full Description

Project narrative

In May 2017, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. (ZGH) — a Chinese privately-owned automotive company — announced that it would purchase a 30% stake in Danish investment bank Saxo Bank A/S. Then, before that deal could be approved, in October 2017, Geely Financials Denmark A/S — a Denmark-incorporated special purpose vehicle (SPV) and subsidiary of Geely Holding Group — offered to purchase a further 21.5% stake in Saxo Bank, raising its ownership to 51.5% for a total consideration of $800 million USD ($300 million USD alone for the 21.5% stake) from shareholders TPG Capital (29.26%), SinarMars (9.9%), co-founder Lars Seier Christensen (25.71%), and minority shareholders. In addition to Geely, Sampo plc of Finland also moved to acquire a 19.9% stake in the bank. Then, sometime around 2017 or 2018, a syndicate of at least five banks — Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited (BOCHK), BNP Paribas S.A., Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), and other banks — issued a €550 million EUR syndicated loan to Geely Financials Denmark A/S support Geely's acquisition of 51.5% of the total issued share capital of Saxo Bank A/S. The acquisition was completed on September 13, 2018. At the time of the acquisition, Saxo Bank had 1,500 employees. It was headquartered in Copenhagen and has offices in London, Singapore, Paris, Zurich, Dubai, and Tokyo. Saxo Bank specialized in multi-asset trading and investment.

Staff comments

1. As "Fangda Partners - Patrick Sun" mentions the borrower was an offshore entity of Geely Group and Geely Financials Denmark A/S, a Denmark-incorporated entity and subsidiary of Geely, made the offering to purchase Saxo Bank, AidData has assumed they were the borrower of this loan. Geely Financials Denmark A/S is a public limited liability company incorporated under the laws of Denmark with company registration (CVR) no. 38976176 and registered address at Axeltorv 2, DK-1609 Copenhagen V, Denmark. 2. There were other lenders to this loan, however their number and identities are unknown. This issue merits further investigation. However, AidData has deduced there were at least five lenders, as "Fangda Partners - Patrick Sun" lists the three known ones and mentions "other banks", meaning a minimum of two other lenders participated. The individual contributions of the five lenders to this €550 million EUR syndicated loan are unknown. For the time being, AidData has estimated the contribution of BOCHK by assuming that each lender contributed an equal amount (€110,000,000 EUR) to the loan syndicate. 3. The Chinese project title is 以收购丹麦盛宝银行股份有限公司已发行股份的并购融资项目.