Bulgarian bank First Investment Bank (FIBank) has mandated ABN AMRO and BayernLB to arrange a €185mn term loan.
The loan will refinance an existing €185mn syndicated loan signed last October, as well as fund the trade-related business of FIBank’s wholly-owned subsidiary and special purpose entity based in the Netherlands, First Investment Finance.
Senior syndication has now launched on the two-year facility. Repayment on this deal is due in bullet form.
Last year’s facility was originally launched at €125mn, and was substantially oversubscribed and the borrower opted to increase the loan. It carried a 364-day maturity, and was also used for refinancing, general funding purposes and trade-related business.
Banks joining the previous facility at senior lead arranger level were: Alpha Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Bawag, Commerzbank and HSH Nordbank. Lead arrangers were Landesbank Berlin, Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz and RZB.
FIBank has an approximately 13% share of all cross-border transaction involving trade finance instruments in the Bulgarian market, according to official data. It also carries out trade-related transactions in around 60 foreign currencies and payments through documentary letters of credits and collections, stand-by letters of credit and bank guarantees. It also actively participates in the forfaiting market, discounting future proceeds under foreign and domestic trade deals.
