MANAMA, 30 April 2005 — Bahrain-based Gulf International Bank (GIB) signed on Thursday a five-year $800 million syndicated loan with regional and global banks to repay earlier borrowings and finance general funding purposes. GIB said in March it had mandated a banking consortium to arrange a $750 million loan, which banks oversubscribed to $850 million.
“This facility will be used partly to replace the $400 million loan maturing in July 2005,” GIB’s Chief Executive Khaled Al-Fayez said after the signing. “The remaining $400 million will be used for general funding purposes, be them lending Gulf projects or investment operations,” he added.
The low interest rate of 35 basis points per annum over LIBOR, coupled with an appetite for borrowing in the market were the main reasons why GIB had raised the amount it was seeking by another $50 million, Fayez told Reuters.
The deposit facility’s bullet repayment falls at the end of the maturity date.
Banks taking part in the facility include the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Barclays Bank, BNP Paribas, CALYON, Citibank, Deutsche Bank AG, and Mizuho Corporate Bank.