Gunvor has signed locally-sourced borrowing base facilities: a US$500mn revolving credit facility in Germany and US$400mn in secured uncommitted facilities in Dubai.

The 360-day German loan will finance the working capital needs of the company’s refinery in Inglostadt. Bookrunning mandated lead arrangers (MLAs) Deutsche Bank and UniCredit (which also acted as co-ordinator) led the facility.

According to Gunvor, the facility was “comfortably oversubscribed”.

The company’s Middle Eastern facilities are split into two tranches: a US$145mn secured uncommitted loan facility and US$255mn in secured uncommitted bilateral facilities. Launched at US$300mn, the transactions were significantly oversubscribed but scaled back to US$400mn.

The facilities were arranged by ABN Amro, which acted as MLA and bookrunner. Arab Petroleum Investment Corporation (Apicorp) and Gulf International Bank joined the transactions as early bird MLAs before general syndication. Mashreqbank entered the MLA group with a top-tier ticket in general syndication.

Arrangers of the deals include Arab Bank, Dohabank, Emirates NBD, Nedbank and Qatar National Bank. British Arab Commercial Bank acted as co-arranger.

The facilities are guaranteed by Gunvor and will be used for working capital needs relating to oil purchases, margin calls with the hedge providers and receivables related to physical transactions in the region.

“The facilities are part of Gunvor’s geographic expansion and its diversification of financing to support new investments and existing operations,” says a statement issued by the company.

ABN Amro’s head of energy commodities in Dubai Nydhal Elmahfoudi says: “This is the first deal of its kind to be syndicated exclusively with financial institutions in the Middle East and where local participating banks have been involved in all aspects of the transaction. We advised Gunvor that we saw significant untapped liquidity in the region and the resulting level of over-subscription highlights how the Middle East is fast developing as a capital market in its own right – particularly for issuers with locally based activities.”