Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has closed its A$3.745bn (US$2.5bn) holdco financing for its portfolio of assets in Australia after attracting a blowout response from 28 lenders in general syndication.

Banco Santander Hong Kong branch, Bank of China Sydney branch, BNP Paribas Australia branch, Clifford Capital Asset Finance, Clifford Capital Holdings, ING Bank (Australia), Intesa Sanpaolo Sydney branch, Mizuho Bank, MUFG Sydney branch, Natixis Singapore branch, Societe Generale Sydney branch, Standard Chartered Australia branch and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp were the mandated lead arrangers, bookrunners and underwriters.

Challenger IM Credit Income Fund, National Australia Bank and National Bank of Kuwait Singapore branch are original MLAs.

Pearl Batsman D 2025 is the borrowing entity.

The borrowing comprises a A$2.2bn five-year term loan, a A$1.3bn seven-year term loan, a A$25m five-year working capital facility, a A$100m five-year liquidity facility and a A$120m five-year debt service reserve facility. The last three revolving credit facilities were not syndicated.

The loan offers interest margins of 180bp and 200bp over BBSY for the five and seven-year tranches, respectively. 

Lenders were offered a top-level participation fee of 12bp per annum. 

JP Morgan was adviser on the financing.

In Australia, ADIA’s subsidiary, Tawreed Investments, is part of consortia that own the WestConnex motorway project in Sydney, New South Wales transmission operator TransGrid, Transurban Queensland, NSW Ports, which manages Port Botany and Port Kembla, and Port of Brisbane.

Tawreed’s minority interests across four investment-grade rated assets – WestConnex, rated BBB+ (S&P), and NSW Ports, Port of Brisbane and Transurban Queensland, all rated BBB – back the holdco loan.

Source: IFR