Saudi Aramco announced the renewal of its US$4 billion revolving credit facility which it said is in line with its strategy to maintain financial flexibility. The new five year revolving credit facility replaces the existing facility signed in 2006.
The recently signed facility divided into US dollar and Saudi Riyal tranches, is broken down as follows: $2.5 billion (of which $1 billion is a 364-day facility) and $1.5 billion equivalent denominated in Saudi Riyals (and offered to local Saudi financial institutions only).
The facility includes 28 participating financial institutions and was nearly 250% oversubscribed. The terms of the new facility reflect Saudi Aramco’s strong credit profile. The average margin for the Five Year Facilities is 16 basis points (bps) and for the 364 Day Facility 13bps.
Saudi Aramco took note of the continued confidence in the company by the global banking community, as reflected in the terms of the 2010 revolving credit facility agreement, despite the difficult global credit market conditions.
The Saudi Riyal tranche participants consist of Riyad Bank and SABB as Bookrunners; National Commercial Bank and Samba Financial Group as Mandated Lead Arrangers; and Arab National Bank, Banque Saudi Fransi, Saudi Hollandi Bank and Saudi Investment Bank as Arrangers.
The USD tranche participants consists of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, BNP Paribas, Citibank, HSBC and J.P. Morgan as Bookrunners; Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Mizuho and Société Générale as Mandated Lead Arrangers; and Arab Bank plc, Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs, Gulf International Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, National Bank of Kuwait, Northern Trust, Standard Chartered Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and The Royal Bank of Scotland as Arrangers.
HSBC was selected as the USD Facility Agent, while Riyad Bank was selected as both the Facility Agent and Saudi Riyal Facility Agent.
White & Case acted as legal counsel to Saudi Aramco and Allen & Overy as lenders legal counsel.
