Trafigura Group, a provider to the global commodities industry, closed a syndicated revolving credit facility (RCF) and term loan facilities at $2.7 billion. The facilities were substantially oversubscribed and upsized from their initial launch amount of $2 billion, with 30 financial institutions participating in the transaction, including four new lenders.
The new facilities consist of:
- A 365-day revolving credit facility of $620 million.
- A one-year CNH term loan facility of $1.17 billion.
- A three-year term loan facility of $930 million. The new facilities will be used to refinance the maturing three-year term loan tranche from 2020 and the maturing one-year USD and one-year CNH tranches from 2022, as well as for general corporate purposes.
“We have successfully refinanced our Asian unsecured syndicated facilities with more than $500 million in additional liquidity,” Christophe Salmon, group chief financial officer, Trafigura, said. “This increase fully relates to the 3-year USD term loan, demonstrating robust support for the company’s strategy, governance and ability to deliver strong results through different commodity and credit cycles.”
In line with the previous two years, the facilities were structured as sustainability-linked loans (SLL). As per its European RCF, this renewed SLL structure includes five key performance indicators (KPIs) to improve Trafigura’s sustainability performance, aligned with material issues for its business. The progress towards each target will be evaluated on an annual basis and verified by a third-party expert. A penalty or discount on the margin will be applied, depending on the number of targets met each year.
Trafigura mandated Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, Agricultural Bank of China Shanghai Huangpu Branch, Bank of Communications Shanghai Putuo Sub-branch and Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank, DBS Bank (DBS), Development Bank of Japan, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited and Standard Chartered Bank Limited (SCB) as the mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners. SCB also acted as global coordinator of the transaction. DBS and FAB acted as sustainability coordinators. In total, 22 financial institutions joined the USD tranches of the facilities during syndication.
The Export-Import Bank of China was the mandated lead arranger and bookrunner in connection with the CNH syndication of the facilities. In total, 14 banks joined the CNH tranche during syndication.