Mumbai, March 22: The state-run Indian Oil Corporation, the country's oil canalising agent, has refinanced a chunk of its $600-million syndicated loan with a fresh $500-million syndicated facility priced at 24 basis points over six-month Libor.The pricing of the refinance deal, tied up this month, equals the one on original $600-million syndicated facility contracted in September last year.
IOC's $500-million transaction will be put through by lead arrangers Bank of America (BankAm) and Midland Bank. BankAm's Hong Kong-based arm, BA Asia, was the coordinating arranger and agent for the transaction.Indian Oil's six-month $600-million facility contracted in September last year was arranged by BA Asia and the HongKong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC).
Sources close to the oil major said the deal will have a bullet repayment structure and is to be availed of within 180 days of drawdown. The all-in tenure is six months. While lead-arrangers BankAm took up $157.5 million, Midland Bank picked up $100million.
Arrangers included the Oriental Bank of Commerce ($77.5 million), Bank of India ($50 million) and HDFC Bank ($30 million). Gulf International Bank, which picked up $75 million, was a co-arranger. Lead-managers Bank Austria Singapore, Times Bank and SBI European Bank Ltd chipped in with $10 million each.
Sources say that $5 million each was picked up by senior managers to the deal: Al-Alhi Commercial Bank, Landesbank, Rheinland-Pfalz, Banca di Roma Singapore, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena Singapore, Landesbank Saar Gironzentrale and SGZ bank.
This is the second time around that IOC has managed to contract cross `jumbo' border finance at the same rates prevailing for such offerings before the meltdown in south-east Asia, be it via a rollover or refinance.
In January this year, Indian Oil rolled over its $500-million syndicated loan (inclusive of a $100-million greenshoe option) at 24.5 basis points above Libor. Original lead-arrangers ABN Amro Bank, Dresdner Bank and Krediet Bank were able toplace the loan for a second time around at 24.5 basis points over Libor despite the crisis in the international markets.
Sources in the cross-finance market pointed out that Indian Oil had managed to hold the pricing because it is quasi-sovereign credit risk.
"No big Indian credit risk has hit the international market for over three months now. The last one was the $75-million Tata-Bell Canada loan at around 187 basis points over Libor happened in December 1997...but pricing is expected to go up this year," sources said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
