Swiss trader, charter and shipowner Trafigura Group has sealed new loans worth $1.6bn to refinance maturing debt.
The company said a syndicated revolving credit facility and term loan tranches were oversubscribed and increased from the original target of $1bn.
Christophe Salmon, group chief financial officer of Trafigura, said the deals demonstrated once again the company's strong access to committed sources of funding from the banking markets across Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
This is "despite unprecedented volatility throughout the syndication period", he added.
The CFO said the group had benefited from a "flight-to-quality", with Trafigura representing a safe-haven in turbulent times for banks active in the commodity trading sector.
A total of 24 banks took part in the deals.
The new finance is made up of a one-year revolver of $730m, another one-year Chinese term loan worth the equivalent of $590m and a three loan of $278m.
These sums will refinance three-year debt maturing this year, as well as two 365-day tranches also due to expire in 2020. One of these is also denominated in Chinese yuan.
Spare dollars
There will be money left over for general corporate purposes.
Salmon said: "I was particularly pleased with another record level reached under the CNH [Chinese yuan renminbi] tranche, which confirms Trafigura’s front-ranking position among commodity traders in the offshore renminbi centres, and demonstrates the benefit of our financial diversification strategy."
Vote of confidence
"The closing amount, above last year’s level, is a strong vote of confidence in the quality of our credit and strength of our business," the CFO added.
Trafigura mandated Standard Chartered Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking as lead arrangers and bookrunners.
Development Bank of Japan, Agriculture Bank of China and China Construction Bank were also among those lenders involved.
In September, Trafigura returned to the bond market at a "near-perfect" time, the company said.
The chartering giant sold a $400m issue maturing in five years.
The bonds were priced at 5.875%, 50 basis points tighter than the initial price talk, "thanks to very strong support from institutional investors and private banks", Trafigura added.
About 90 different institutions snapped up the bonds across Asia and Europe.
Charter deals with Euronav
On Monday, TradeWinds reported that Belgian tanker owner Euronav has taken in some vessels on period charters for the first time since 2015.
The Belgian tanker giant fixed the 157,000-dwt Marlin Sardinia and Marlin Somerset (both built 2019) from Trafigura for two years at $25,000 per day, brokers reported.
Trafigura owns a fleet of product tankers, asphalt and bitumen vessels and an LPG carrier, as well as stakes in tanker owners Frontline and Scorpio Tankers.
