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. 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 for refinancing 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 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, which it replaced (refinanced). Record ID#99945 captures BOC's contribution. In addition to BOC, the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: Lloyds Bank plc, the London Branch of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), the London Branch of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., MUFG Bank, Ltd., Santander UK PLC, Barclays Bank PLC, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS), the London Branch of BNP Paribas S.A., Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (CACIB), and the London Branch of Crédit Industriel et Commercial (CIC). Lloyds Bank plc served as Facility Agent.
Staff comments
1. The individual contributions of the 12 lenders to this £735 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 (£61,250,000 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.