Investec Bank has borrowed US$450mn in the form of a term loan, from a syndicate of 25 international banks.

The finance was launched at US$200mn, was three-times oversubscribed and scaled back significantly, the bank says in a statement. It will be used to refinance an existing facility and to fulfil general corporate purposes.

With a tenor of two years and the option of a one-year extension, at the borrower’s discretion, this marks the second time Investec has tapped the US dollar syndicated loan market in three years. GTR has learnt that the deal is priced at three-month Libor plus 95 basis points (bps), compared to Libor plus 105 bps for the 2015 facility, which was due to expire in October this year.

The bank’s global head of financial institutions, Darryn Solomon, says that the reduced pricing is testament to the bank’s improved financial position in recent years. “We took advantage of the fact that Investec Bank Plc has been upgraded substantially over the last couple of years. Now we’re A2-rated by Moody’s with a positive outlook, BBB+ by Fitch with a positive outlook, so that’s obviously helped in terms of pricing,” he says.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), Lloyds and Standard Chartered acted as joint co-ordinators, with BAML also acting as documentation agent. Bayerische Landesbank was facility agent.

The bookrunners and mandated lead arrangers (MLAs) were: Axis Bank, BAML, Bank of China, Bayerische Landesbank, BNP Paribas, Citi, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, ING, JP Morgan, Lloyds, Mizuho, Santander, Société Générale, Standard Chartered and State Bank of India.

MLAS were: BTMU, Erste Group Bank and HSBC.

Lead arrangers were: AfrAsia Bank, BNY Mellon, Credit Suisse, NatWest, Raiffeisen Bank, UniCredit and Wells Fargo.