Global commodities trader Mercuria has secured a term loan and revolving credit facilities worth US$1.7bn from a pool of commercial banks and state-owned Chinese institutions, bolstering plans to “ramp up” operations in the Asia Pacific.

Mercuria, a major trader of energy and metals goods, will use the funding for general corporate and working capital purposes.

The deal includes a one-year US dollar revolving credit facility (RCF) with a swingline facility, a one-year term loan facility denominated in offshore Chinese renminbi, as well as a three-year US dollar RCF. Each of the facilities comes with two additional extension options of 12 months.

Initially launched at US$850mn, Mercuria opted to scale back commitments from participating banks after the facilities were oversubscribed by over 90%.

“Thirty-three banks have participated in the facilities, including new lenders from the Asia-Pacific and Middle East region. As we ramp up our resources within Asia with new manpower, we are pleased that our banks provide strong support,” says Guillaume Vermersch, Mercuria’s Group CFO.

“Asia remains an important market for Mercuria as we continue to build up our presence in China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand and beyond,” Vermersch says in a December 2 statement.

Bookrunning mandated lead arrangers (MLAs) are Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation, Bank of China, DBS Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Mizuho Bank, MUFG, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, SMBC and the Export-Import Bank of China.

Agricultural Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, China CITIC, China Construction Bank, Emirates NBD, National Bank of Australia, UBS, Union Bank of India and Westpac Banking Corporation all act as MLAs.

Crédit Agricole CIB, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Kookmin Bank, Natixis, Rabobank, Société Générale are lead arrangers.

Arrangers are China Everbright Bank, National Bank of Fujairah, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank and United Overseas Bank.

The deal builds on Mercuria’s Asia RCF agreement from late 2023 which involved about 30 banks and closed at US$1.5bn.

In September, the commodities trader closed a ¥130.9bn (US$920mn) samurai term loan facility with a group of international and Asian banks. The transaction marked the sixth time Mercuria had tapped the Japanese syndicated loan market, with a total of 13 banks participating in the deal.