South Africa’s Standard Bank has closed a US$1bn syndicated term loan facility with 43 banks.

The facility will be used for general corporate purposes, including on-lending for trade finance. It has a 3-year tenor, with a 1-year extension option.

Standard Bank says the deal, which was signed on August 31, was well-received and heavily over-subscribed – leading to scaling back of total commitments.  The group of 43 participating banks include global as well as regional banks from around the world, with a large number of Asian banks.

The facility was co-ordinated by Emirates NBD Capital, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Standard Chartered. Standard Chartered acted as signing and documentation agent, while Mizuho Bank was the facility agent.

Mandated lead arrangers also included Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of America, Bank of Baroda, Bank of China, Commerzbank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC, Samba Financial Group, State Bank of India, SMBC and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

David Kinsey, Standard Bank’s head of treasury and capital management, says the facility is the bank’s 37th syndicated loan transaction since the first was signed in 1995.

“The size of the facility, participation by a large number of its relationship banks and substantial over subscription is testimony to the market’s confidence in Standard Bank and in the South African banking system,” says Kinsey.