Mandated lead arrangers Calyon, Barclays Capital, Commerzbank, Mizuho, Standard Chartered and Gulf International Bank have signed a US$350mn syndicated term loan facility.

The transaction was launched at the end of June to a group of banks for take and hold tickets. Despite a substantial oversubscription, the Qatari borrower opted not to increase the facility amount from the launch amount of US$350mn, and commitments were scaled back.  It is paying a margin of 26 basis points over Libor per annum.

Barclays Capital, Calyon, Commerzbank and Standard Chartered are bookrunners on the deal, with Commerzbank acting as documentation agent, Mizuho as facility agent and GIB as the signing agent.

All initial lead arrangers are committing US$24mn. A further eight banks joined as MLAs during syndication all committing US$17mn: Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BayernLB, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, DZ Bank, Erste Bank, ING, and Wachovia.

A total of three arrangers are joining the facility. Intesa Sanpaolo and ICBC are both committing US$10.5mn, and Kommunalkredit are committing US$9mn.

Co-arrangers are Banca Popolare di Verona, Banque et Caisse D’Epargne de L”Etat, Dresdner Bank, China Exim, KBC, Monte dei Paschi and Zurcher Kantonalbank, all of which are committing US$5mn. Lead managers are National Bank of Umm Al-Qawain and UBAF, both committing US$2.5mn.