HONG KONG, May 9 (Reuters) - The Sultanate of Oman is seeking a US$3.6bn five-year bullet term loan from Chinese banks, banking sources said.
Oman’s finance ministry is self-arranging the senior unsecured deal, which pays an interest margin of 190bp over Libor.
Bank of China, China Development Bank, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China are the mandated lead arrangers with the latter two also acting as bookrunners on the senior unsecured deal.
Banks are being invited to participate at three ticket levels.
Mandated lead arrangers with commitments of US$500m or above will earn an all-in pricing of 210bp over Libor based on an upfront fee of 100bp, while lead arrangers coming in for US$250m−$499m receive an all-in of 206bp over Libor based on an 80bp fee. Arrangers with commitments of US$100m−$249m get an all-in of 202bp over Libor based on a 60bp fee.
Commitments are due by June 2 and signing is scheduled for June 12.
Proceeds are for the Oman government’s general budgetary purposes.
The Middle Eastern country’s loan follows in the footsteps of a US$600m facility for its sovereign wealth fund Oman Investment Fund, which closed earlier this week. Proceeds back the fund’s acquisition of a 51% stake in Oman Telecommunications Co SAOG.
Banca IMI (London), a unit of Intesa Sanpaolo, Citigroup, Kuwait Finance House and National Bank of Abu Dhabi were the MLABs of that loan, which will mature in April 2020 and pays an interest margin of 230bp over Libor plus a top level participation fee of 60bp for commitments of US$50m or more.
Oman is rated Baa1/BBB−/BBB (Moody’s/S&P/Fitch). (Editing by Prakash Chakravarti and Christopher Mangham)
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