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Exim Bank seeks loans to finance China firms
By Patricia Kuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-09 05:37
Export-Import Bank of China will borrow US$260 million from nine banks to
support expanding trade financing and overseas investment by Chinese companies,
according to Bank of China, which is arranging the loan.
The bank will sign the loan on February 20, said Wang Tong, Bank of China's
head of debt capital markets.
Export-Import Bank had asked for US$200 million, then raised its request 30
per cent after the banks offered US$300 million, Wang said yesterday in Beijing.
Beijing-based Export-Import Bank will pay interest of 0.25 percentage point
more than the London interbank offered rate for the loan, the second
dollar-syndicated loan since November 2004, Wang said.
The other eight lenders for the US$260 million loan are Royal Bank of
Scotland Group Plc, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, ING Greop NV, Bank of
Montreal, HSBC Holdings Plc, BNP Paribas SA, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd
and Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd, Wang said.
Bank of China and its strategic investor, Royal Bank of Scotland, will each
lend US$60 million, Wang said. Royal Bank of Scotland, Britain's second-biggest
bank, said in August it will join with Merrill Lynch & Co and Li Ka-shing's
Foundation to pay US$3.1 billion for 10 per cent of Bank of China.
Export-Import Bank took a US$500 million five-year loan in 2004 arranged by
Citigroup Inc, paying an interest margin of 0.35 percentage point, Bloomberg
data shows.
Export-Import Bank lent 95.9 billion yuan (US$11.9 billion) of trade
financing in the first half of 2005, it said on its website. It raised US$1
billion in July from a 10-year bond issue.
(China Daily 02/09/2006 page5)
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