Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In May 2013, a syndicate of banks signed a £310 million GBP (€364 million EUR) syndicated revolving credit facility (RCF) agreement with The British Land Company plc — a British property development and investment company — for unspecified purposes. This loan carried a maturity period of five years, a final maturity date in May 2018, an interest rate based on a floating rate plus an initial margin of 135 basis points (bps), was unsecured, and included British Land's standard unsecured financial covenants. Financial close was reached in June 2013 with final bank joining the syndicate, raising the total lenders — including the Bank of China (BOC) — to eight banks. Record ID#99941 captures BOC's contribution. In addition to BOC, the following lenders contributed to the syndicated loan: Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (BTMU), JP Morgan, the Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank), Mega International Commercial Bank, and Banco Santander S.A. Lloyds served as facility agent and co-ordinator. Lloyds, RBS, and BTMU served as bookrunners. This RCF was launched into syndication £200 million GBP (€235 million EUR) before being increased due to oversubscription. Then, in February 2015, a syndicate of seven banks — including BOC — signed a £485 million GBP RCF agreement with The British Land Company plc for unspecified purposes. This RCF carried a maturity of five years with an option to extend to seven years on British Land's request and the lenders' consent, an interest rate based on a floating rate plus an initial margin of 90 bps, was unsecured, and included British Land's standard unsecured financial covenants. This £485 million GBP RCF replaced (refinanced) British Land's £560 million GBP RCF which would have matured in May 2016 and extended and re-priced of the £310 million GBP RCF. Record ID#92273 captures BOC's contribution. In March 2020, a syndicate of eight banks entered into a £450 million GBP environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-linked RCF agreement with British Land for general corporate purposes. This RCF was based on an amendment and extension of for general corporate purposes, and carried a maturity period of five years with a two-year extension option and an interest rate of LIBOR plus a margin of 90 bps (the interest rate being unchanged). This loan likely replaced the February 2015 £485 million GBP RCF. It is unclear whether BOC participated in this loan.
Staff comments
1. The individual contributions of the eight lenders to this £310 million GBP syndicated RCF are unknown. For the time being, AidData has estimated the contribution of the BOC by assuming that the eight lenders each contributed an equal amount (£38,750,000 GBP) to the loan syndicate. 2. It is unclear if BOC joined this loan when it was signed in May 2013 or if it was the final bank (or a bank beforehand) that joined in June 2013. For the time being, AidData has coded June 2013 as the commitment date and marked the commitment_date_estimated? field as True.