Turkey’s Koç Tüpras has closed its $2.1bn syndicated loan facility with a consortium of ten international banks.
The deal’s mandated lead arrangers include Crédit Agricole, BBVA, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Santander, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Société Générale and WestLB.
The credit facility consists of three tranches.
The first tranche is a US$1.1bn loan, insured by Spain’s export credit agency Cesce, and includes insurance premiums and capitalised interest.
It carries a grace period of four years and a total tenor of 12 years.
Based on the expected drawdown dates and the average-term, including insurance premiums and other expenses, the approximate cost of financing is 305 basis points over Libor.
The second tranche is worth US$624.3mn and is insured by Italy’s export credit agency, Sace.
The tranche includes insurance premiums and capitalised interest.
It carries a grace period of four years and a total tenor of 12 years.
The margin of the loan is approximately 310 basis points over Libor.
Commercial loans worth US$359mn will also be provided.
They come with a grace period of four years and a total tenor of seven years and are priced at 285 basis points over Libor.
Koç Tüpras confirms that it is still in talks regarding the Cesce and Sace-insured loans as to the possible conversion to fixed interest rates.
Koç Tüpras will use the funds to develop a new unit at its Izmit refinery near Istanbul, which is expected to begin operating by end of 2014.
The refinery will convert up to 4.2 million metric tonnes per a year of fuel oil into 3.5 million metric tonnes of EU-standard gasoline and diesel.
Koç Tüpras is Turkey’s only oil refining company and processes 28.1 million tonnes of crude oil per year.
