Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has secured a US$636.5mn syndicated facility from 22 lenders.
A US$300mn dual tranche (two-year and three-year) facility was arranged by six initial mandated lead arrangers (IMLAs) and bookrunners, which each committed US$50mn.
They included: Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, FirstRand Bank, Standard Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
A secondary market syndication was also arranged, with new commitments of US$336.5mn from 16 global lenders, including: ICBC, Commercial Bank of Kuwait, the Korea Development Bank, KDB Bank Europe, Burgan Bank, Tunis International Bank, First Gulf Bank, Bank of China, State Bank of India, Banque des Mascareignes, Commercial Bank of Qatar, China Exim, Korea Exchange Bank, Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait, First Commercial Bank, Mega International Commercial Bank, and United Taiwan Bank.
The overall facility, which was more than twice oversubscribed, will be used by the multilateral institution for general corporate purposes, including trade facilitation.
We are encouraged by the confidence that our lenders have placed in us.
Banji Fehintola, senior vice-president and treasurer at AFC, says: “AFC’s long-term vision is to help address Africa’s infrastructure deficit and ensure sustainable economic growth for the continent. We are encouraged by the confidence that our lenders have placed in us.
“We believe that the well -documented need for bridging the infrastructure investment divide across Africa will provide the opportunity to apply AFC’s differentiated model of providing long-term infrastructure financing and value-added infrastructure asset project development expertise, to generate real value for our investors and stakeholders.”
AFC also signed a three-year US$300mn framework facility with Germany’s KfW Ipex-Bank to help connect European exporters with African infrastructure projects earlier this month.
