The African Export-Import Bank (“Afreximbank” or the “Borrower”) is pleased to announce the successful signing of a US$761,000,000 and €105,000,000 Dual Tenor Dual Currency Syndicated Term Loan Facility (the “Facility”) on 24 November 2016, following strong support from the Borrower’s core relationship banks and a highly successful general syndication phase.
The Facility was launched at US$600,000,000-equivalent. Fourteen banks joined the 12 Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners, taking the facility size to approximately US$872,000,000. The 14 lenders joining in general syndication comprise a balanced mixture of institutions from the Middle East, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Proceeds will be used for trade finance and general corporate purposes.
The Facility comprises a US$316,000,000 Tranche A1 and €105,000,000 Tranche B, each with a tenor of two years, and a US$445,000,000 Tranche A2 with a tenor of three years. The margins of both the two and three-year tranches, at 130bp and 150bp respectively, represent the lowest levels that Afreximbank has paid for a syndicated loan.
General syndication invited only US dollar commitments. This did not deter investors at a time of US dollar strength and, moreover, a significantly greater proportion of funds (73%) raised in the general syndication phase were commitments to the three-year facility, illustrating the strength of Afreximbank as a credit and investors’ confidence to lend money to the bank for the same time-period as syndicated loan facilities provided to tier-one South African banks in 2016.
The Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners of the Facility were Bank ABC; The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd.; Barclays Africa Group Limited; Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft Filiale Luxemburg; First Gulf Bank PJSC; HSBC Bank plc; Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, London Branch (“ICBC London”); Mizuho Bank, Ltd.; National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC; Rand Merchant Bank, a division of FirstRand Bank Limited (London Branch); Standard Chartered Bank; and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Limited.
Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, Filiale Luxemburg, is the sole Co-ordinator and Documentation Agent. The Facility Agent is Standard Chartered Bank.
The Borrower
Afreximbank was established in October 1993, under the auspices of the African Development Bank, by African governments, African financial institutions and private investors as well as non-African financial institutions and private investors as a regional multilateral development financial institution with the mandate to promote the export of African goods by financing and facilitating intra- and extra-African trade. It is headquartered in Cairo and has three branch offices located in Harare, Zimbabwe; Abuja, Nigeria and Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire. A fourth branch is currently being operationalised in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Bank provides financing to private and public-owned enterprises. Its history of strong recoveries and its dual recourse lending have kept historic credit performance at levels superior to those of financial institutions operating in similar environments. Afreximbank enjoys supranational status, as recognised and registered on 10 April 1997 in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations, which mitigates country risk for lending through it to African entities. It also has the status of preferred creditor in its Member States.
The Borrower is currently rated BBB- (negative outlook) by Fitch and Baa2 (stable outlook) by Moody’s. Further information on the Borrower may be obtained from its website at www.afreximbank.com
For any further enquiries, please contact:
Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft
Lothar Schlichting
Tel: +49 69 136 47652
Afreximbank
Obi Emekekwue
Tel: +202-2456-4238