Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On April 2, 2014, a syndicate of 14 banks — including the London Branch of the Bank of China (BOC) — signed a £785 million GBP syndicated revolving credit facility (RCF) agreement with The British Land Company plc — a British property development and investment company — for unspecified purposes. This RCF carried a maturity period of five years with a two-year extension option at British Land's request and the lenders' approval, an interest rate based on a floating rate plus an initial margin of 115 basis points (bps), was unsecured, and included British Land's standard unsecured financial covenants. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower to replace (refinance) a £620 million GBP facility. Record ID#99944 captures BOC's contribution. In addition to BOC, the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: Lloyds Bank plc, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Santander Global Banking & Markets, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (BTMU), Barclays Bank PLC, HSBC Bank plc, JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Girozentrale (Helaba), Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Wells Fargo Bank N.A., BNP Paribas S.A., Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (CACIB), and The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS). Lloyds, SMBC, Santander Global Banking, and BTMU served as Joint Co-ordinators and Bookrunners. Lloyds also served as the Facility Agent. Then, in May 2018, a syndicate of 12 banks — including the London Branch of BOC — signed a £735 million GBP syndicated RCF agreement with The British Land Company plc. This RCF carried a maturity period of five years with a two-year extension option at British Land's request and the lenders' approval, an interest rate based on a floating rate plus an initial margin of 90 basis points (bps), was unsecured, and included British Land's standard unsecured financial covenants. This RCF was an amendment and extension of the 2014 £785 million GBP syndicated RCF. Record ID#99945 captures BOC's contribution.
Staff comments
1. The individual contributions of the 14 lenders to this £785 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 (£56,071,428.5714 GBP) to the loan syndicate. 2. Later editions of British Land's annual reports and accounts, such as "The British Land Company plc Annual Report and Accounts 2021", mention that British Land saw extensions of significant portions of its debt, almost certainly including the £785 million GBP. However, it is unclear which portions were extended on which dates. This issue merits further investigation.