A new loan facility for $75 million is being sought for India Oil Corporation (IOC), the country's only importer of crude oil and petroleum products and its one Fortune 500 company. The new mandate was recently awarded to ABN Amro Bank N.V. (Singapore branch), Citibank and Sumitomo bank, with syndication due to close next month.
A banker working on the syndication is optimistic that the new deal will prove just as popular as the last $200 million facility. With ABN Amro Bank, Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation and Tokai Bank as lead arrangers, IOC approached the market for $150 million in mid November 2000 to finance its crude oil imports. The three and a half year bullet loan was priced at 55bp over Libor and attracted commitments of $230 million.
"We expect a similarly good response," says one banker. "This new loan will be slightly shorter so there will be a difference in price, but we expect that it will be in the same vicinity."
The purpose of the new loan is to refinance the existing debt of the company.
At a signing ceremony last week, details of the first loan's syndicate group were revealed. The three lead arrangers took $15 million apiece, while senior co-arranger Bank of India took $25 million and fellow senior co-arrangers DG Bank Frankfurt, GZ Bank Singapore and Sanwa Bank Singapore $15 million.
Co-arrangers on $10 million comprised: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, BNU Macau, HSBC CCF, Hua Nan Commercial Bank, NorddeutscheLB Luxembourg and Syndicate Bank London. Finally, lead managers on $5 million were: Banca di Roma Singapore, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena Singapore, Indian Bank Colombo, SBI European Bank and Asahi Bank Singapore.
