Lead arrangers Barclays Capital, Citibank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and JPMorgan closed the Qantas multi-tranche facility yesterday (Thursday). As a result of oversubscription, the loan has been increased from A$1.4 billion ($727.86 million) to A$2.1 billion. A banker working on the deal said that the borrower could have had commitments of up to A$2.3 billion, but only agreed to increase the loan to A$2.1 billion.
The deal closed with a large number of Asian banks subscribing to the deal, such as ICBC and Bank of East Asia. "It goes to show that Asian banks still have a large appetite, even for an airline deal," he said. "Only good airline names will be able to get a syndicated loan like this."
The deal closes after a long roadshow in Asia and Europe.
