Afreximbank seals $300m China Exim-backed facility

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has closed its first-ever China/Taiwan specific syndicated loan with a $300-million facility guaranteed by the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank).

The five-year syndicated loan, which closed on September 12, was only opened to investors from China and Taiwan and was twice oversubscribed, with 16 investors and banks participating, while Standard Chartered Bank served as the sole coordinator, book runner, and mandated lead arranger.

“This syndicated facility helps position Afreximbank to strengthen its role in the development of trade between Africa and the rest of the world, in particular China and the rest of the Far East.

“The conclusion of this facility demonstrates Afreximbank’s increasing ability to attract much-needed resources into Africa and to fund trade finance related investments that will have a positive impact on Sino-Africa trade,” the bank’s Executive Vice President in charge of Finance, Administration and Banking Services, Denys Denya, said.

Describing the high level of subscription and diversified nature of investors in the loan as evidence of strong investor confidence in Afreximbank, Denya said that the facility would help the bank to achieve its liability management objective of reducing the cost of funds and diversifying its liability book by geography, investor type and tenor.

As part of the effort to strengthen trade ties between Africa and China, Afreximbank and China Exim Bank recently signed a $1 billion collaboration agreement to promote and finance the development of industrial parks across Africa.

On 17 May in London, Afreximbank closed a $750 million bond after achieving an order book of $3.4 billion from 290 investors, the largest ever to be achieved by the bank in the international debt capital market.