Africa Loans

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has bolstered its loan syndication and sales effort in London with a hire as the bank looks to establish a stronger foothold in the Europe, Middle East and Africa market.

Loan bankers have been waiting on tenterhooks for Kenya to reveal a mandate for deals totalling as much as $1bn, with the country’s government having originally been set to make the announcement this week.

Syndication of the acquisition financing loans for Lonza and Sibanye Gold is expected to begin soon, as loans bankers begin 2017 in an optimistic mood.

The global rise in dollar funding, combined with political upheaval and the heavy depreciation of the lira are destroying some of the historically borrower-friendly terms available in the Turkish loan market. Elly Whittaker reports.

While some cash-strapped borrowers in Africa will bite the bullet and pay up to access international bond markets in 2017, others will have to return to the loan market for support. Virginia Furness and Elly Whittaker report.

South African gold miner Sibanye has agreed to buy US palladium miner Stillwater for $2.2bn and will raise a $2.7bn loan to pay for the acquisition. Sibanye joins South African borrowers Steinhoff and Aspen in raising large loans for M&A this year.

The longer dated tranche of African Export-Import Bank’s (Afreximbank’s) two and three year loan received the most commitments in general syndication even though it was the first time the borrower borrowed at such a long tenor.

Though Egypt is reeling from the central bank’s action to float its currency last month two Egyptian borrowers are in the market for hard currency loans this week, but unsecured corporate loans will be slower to come, said bankers.

The Egyptian subsidiary of Abu Dhabi telecoms firm Etisalat is raising a $278m loan described as having “UAE pricing” because — despite the currency risks involved in Egyptian loans — the deal is secured by the borrower’s offshore foreign currency revenues, according to bankers.

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) signed a $872m loan this week at its lowest margin for a two year syndicated deal, according to two bankers on the deal. The borrower also increased the deal size from $600m in syndication.

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) started signing banks to join its third syndicated loan of the year this week. African multilateral banks have raised more in syndicated loans in 2016 than in any other year, according to Dealogic.

Caa1 rated Banque Misr is syndicating a loan with a longer than usual tenor of five years, though a guarantee from the Egyptian central bank will help drive demand, according to two bankers away from the deal.