The Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company Limited (Yasref) has announced the signing of unsecured corporate finance credit facilities in an amount equal to US$4.7bn to refinance an existing shareholders credit facility
This syndicated credit facility allows Yasref to refinance its existing senior shareholders’ credit facility extended by the joint venture partners as part of their initial investment in building a world-class fully-integrated landmark refining complex.
The US$4.7bn facilities are broken into two tranches — a US dollar denominated seven-year term facility entered into with 17 participating regional and international financial institutions in an aggregate amount of US$3.1bn with a margin over LIBOR of 105 bps; and a Saudi Arabian riyal denominated seven-year term facility entered into with nine participating local financial institutions in an aggregate amount of US$1.6bn.
The credit facilities have been executed with a syndicate of 26 local, regional and international financial institutions and have been oversubscribed whereby most participating institutions were significantly scaled back, according to Saudi Gazzette.
Yasref chairman Abdallah I. Al-Saadan said, “The participation by the global and local financial institutions represents continued trust in Yasref and in the Saudi economy as a whole. Both shareholders — Saudi Aramco and Sinopec — are proud of the many accomplishments of Yasref that place it among the best global refining landmarks.”
According to officials, the agreement reflects the financial community’s perception of Yasref’s credit and trust in the Company’s position as the anchor project in the Yanbu Industrial City that signifies Saudi Arabia’s ability to compete on a global scale in the energy sector given it has built its world-class facility to the highest environmental and technical standards.
