Abu Dhabi: Aabar Investments, an Abu Dhabi-based firm, announced it has signed a €3.6 billion loan facility with a syndicate of global banks in order to refinance several of the company’s facilities.
The five-year senior unsecured, non-guaranteed facility was arranged on tighter terms compared to previous facilities, Aabar said in a statement.
The banks involved in the deal are Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, HSBC, Intesa Sanpaolo, JPMorgan Chase, Natixis, Societe Generale, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. The National Bank of Abu Dhabi is the documentation bank and facility agent.
A further limited syndication of the facility is now in the process of being arranged.
Mohammad Al Mehairi, chief executive officer of Aabar, said that reaching this deal was important for the company as it “moves forward with its strategy of diversified investment in attractive global opportunities.”
Aabar currently invests globally in sectors that include real estate, financial services, energy, commodities, and aerospace.
In late February, Reuters reported that Aabar was close to securing a loan worth nearly €4 billion, citing sources aware of the matter who said that the loan will replace a number of existing borrowings, including a $2.5 billion facility that will mature in April.
Pricing on the deal is around 180 basis points over benchmark rates, Reuters said, pointing that it was rare for such a large transaction to be denominated only in euros. Regional firms tend to borrow in local currency or in dollars, to which their currencies are pegged.
