Arab Banking Corporation (ABC) has announced the successful closing of a $750 million syndicated term loan facility.

The initial mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners are HSBC Bank Middle East Limited, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Natixis and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

National Bank of Abu Dhabi is the facility agent and HSBC acted as the co-ordinating bank.

The three-year facility will be used for general corporate funding purposes and carries a margin of 120 basis points over Libor.

Syndication was launched in an initial amount of $500 million and closed significantly oversubscribed, raising in excess of $800 million from 17 leading international and regional banks.

The closing was marked by a signing ceremony at the Capital Club, DIFC, Dubai yesterday.

The ceremony was attended by ABC's executive vice-president and group chief banking officer Ray Ferguson and members of ABC's executive management team.

'We are delighted by the success of this syndication and extremely appreciative of the strong demonstration of support for ABC we have received from the 17 leading institutions in the bank market, who have joined in this important transaction,' Ferguson said.

'The banks represent financial institutions from across Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East,' he added.

“ABC's first syndication since 2007 has been subscribed by a high quality group of 17, geographically diverse relationship banks,” HSBC's Mena regional banking head Jonathan Robinson said.

“This successful outcome bears testament to the solid institutional stature of ABC,” he added. - TradeArabia News Service