Indian mobile operator Reliance Jio Infocomm has secured a US$1.5bn syndicated term loan facility to refinance existing debt.
The facility, guaranteed by parent company Reliance Industries, was fully underwritten by an initial group of 15 banks, which…
Indian mobile operator Reliance Jio Infocomm has secured a US$1.5bn syndicated term loan facility to refinance existing debt.
The facility, guaranteed by parent company Reliance Industries, was fully underwritten by an initial group of 15 banks, which acted as mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners, Reliance Jio said in a statement.
After being oversubscribed, the transaction was launched into syndication and two extra banks joined as MLAs.
In total, 26 international banks from locations including North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and the Middle East, participated in the term loan syndication.
The facility consists of a US$1bn loan, which matures in five-and-a-half years, and a US$500m loan, which matures in seven years. This represents the longest average maturity for an unsecured syndicated loan of comparable size in Asia this year, according to Reliance Jio.
Proceeds will be used to refinance US$1.5bn syndicated term loan facilities secured in 2010.
The 15 MLABs were ANZ, Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Bank of Nova Scotia Asia, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Citigroup, Credit Agricole, DBS Bank, HSBC, Mizuho Bank, RBS, Standard Chartered, SMBC and Westpac. The two additional MLAs which came in before syndication were National Bank of Abu Dhabi and United Overseas Bank.
Reliance Jio noted that, unusually, the higher tenor facility saw stronger participation in syndication than the lower tenor facility.
