Croatia’s Zaba syndication is launched

Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan have launched general syndication of the three-year €150mn syndicated term loan facility for Zagrebacka banka (Zaba).  The purpose of the facility is to provide Zaba with funds for on-lending to its clients for general trade purposes. The loan carries a margin of 0.65% pa and Deutsche Bank AG London is facility agent.

The joint mandated lead arrangers have recently concluded a highly successful pre-syndication phase and are pleased to announce that Alpha Bank AE, Bank Austria Creditanstalt AG, Bayerische Landesbank, Erste Bank, KBC Bank NV Dublin branch, ING Bank NV, LB Kiel, and Wachovia Bank NA, have joined the transaction at arranger level.

Banks will be invited into the facility at general syndication at the following levels:

Zaba is the largest bank in Croatia with total assets at December 31, 2002 of €7.214bn.   Zaba is 82.5% owned by Italy’s Unicredito and 13.75% by Allianz AG and has an investment grade long term foreign currency rating from Standard & Poor’s of BBB-.