International Financing Review Asia April 4 2020 25COUNTRY REPORT AUSTRALIAthat, in addition to the senior facility,
neither the junior nor mezzanine facilities
that were being arranged will be able to be
completed for the foreseeable future,” the
company said.
FAR had approximately A$150m cash at
hand and no debt as at end of February.
On March 25 FAR had warned that
funding for the project might face delays
due to the combination of the coronavirus
and stumbling oil prices.
In January, the company stated it had
received underwritten commitments
for the RBL facility with documentation
expected to be concluded in the following
months.
BNP Paribas, Glencore and Macquarie Bank
had committed US$100m apiece to the
financing, which is for the Sangomar field
project located offshore Senegal.
The borrowing pays an interest margin
is 775bp over Libor and a commitment
fee of 40% of the margin for any undrawn
amount. It has a seven-year door-to-door
tenor with a four-year repayment holiday.
The project is a joint venture between
Australia’s Woodside Petroleum, FAR,
the UK’s Cairn Energy and state-owned
Societe Nationale des Petroles du Senegal
(Petrosen).
FAR continues to work with Woodside
and other JV partners to explore options to
preserve the development.› WOLLONGONG COAL IN WORKOUT TALKSAustralian coking coal company WOLLONGONG
COAL, a unit of India’s Jindal Steel & Power,
is in discussions with lenders to restructure
loans signed in 2015 after announcing a
termination to that exercise, it said in a
filing to the Australian Securities Exchange
last Friday.
The companies are urgently considering
whether an application can be made to
effectively reinstate the schemes. It is
anticipated that the majority of creditors
are generally supportive of such an
application, the filing said.
A scheme of arrangement relating to the
restructuring, announced in March last
year, could not be completed as a number
of conditions precedent were not satisfied.
These included meeting certain
conditions or obtaining waivers, and
payments to creditors and their advisers
within a certain timeframe.
JINDAL STEEL AND POWER (AUSTRALIA) is the
borrower for these facilities which were
originally signed in August and December
2015.
Last March, Wollongong Coal, formerly
known as Gujarat NRE Coking Coal,
entered into negotiations to restructure
facilities of US$69m from August 2015 andUS$98.69m from December 2015.
According to Refnitiv LPC data, the
former loan is a US$415m 9.5-year loan
maturing in February 2025. Axis Bank and
State Bank of India were the mandated
arrangers with Axis as facility agent.
AfrAsia Bank, Bank of Baroda, Canara
Bank, Export-Import Bank of India, DBS
Bank, Mauritius Commercial Bank, PNB
International Finance, State Bank of
Mauritius, UCO Bank and Union Bank of
India joined as participants.
Wollongong Coal and two of its
subsidiaries, Oceania Coal Resources NL and
Wongawilli Coal, are the guarantors for the
loans signed in 2015.
Wollongong Coal has repaid US$17.35m
reducing the secured debt to US$352.8m
from US$370.15m, the company’s filing
said. The remaining US$10.42m balance of
another facility has also been paid.› SCENTRE OBTAINS ADDITIONAL LOANSCENTRE GROUP has obtained two-year
unsecured bank loans to boost liquidity
in an effort to deal with the impact of the
coronavirus crisis.
As a result, the group’s available
liquidity position will increase to A$3.1bn
(US$1.9bn), according to its filing to
the Australian Securities Exchange last
Wednesday.
The increase in its liquidity from around
A$1.8bn as of December 2019 demonstrates
its strong access to capital and reduces
refinancing risk through 2021, according to
Moody’s Investor Services.
The rating agency revised the outlook
of the company’s A2 rating to negative
from stable, citing expectations of further
deterioration in the retail environment
that will put pressure on Scentre Group’s
earnings and leverage metrics.
The company has A$2.5bn of bonds
and bank facilities maturing through to
December 31 2021, according to the latest
filing.
In August 2018, it obtained a A$900m
loan that drew 11 banks in general
syndication and was increased from an
initial A$500m target.
ANZ, MUFG and National Australia bank
were the mandated lead arrangers and
bookrunners of the transaction, which
comprises a A$590m 5.5-year revolving
credit tranche A, a A$92.5m 5.5-year term
loan tranche B and a A$217.5m seven-year
term loan tranche C.
The interest margins on the borrowing
are tied to Scentre Group’s ratings from
Moody’s and S&P, which are currently at A2
and A, respectively.
The 5.5 and seven-year tranches pay
margins of 160bp and 185bp respectivelyover BBSY for Baa2/BBB (Moody’s/S&P) or
lower.
They step down to as low as 95bp and
120bp respectively if the ratings are higher.
Lenders were offered top-level
participation fees of 55bp and 70bp for 5.5-
year and seven-year portions, respectively.
Scentre Group is the owner and operator
of Westfield in Australia and New Zealand
with interests in 42 Westfield Living
Centres.› SCAPE WRAPS UP LOAN FOR URBANEST BUYA loan of about A$1.45bn backing SCAPE
AUSTRALIA MANAGEMENT’s acquisition of a
portfolio of student housing has closed to a
strong response with 17 lenders joining in
syndication.
Aareal Bank, Agricultural Bank of China,
ANZ, Bank of China, Bank of Communications,
Bank SinoPac, China Construction Bank, Credit
Industriel et Commercial, E.Sun Commercial
Bank, First Commercial Bank, Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China, Mega International
Commercial Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking
Corp, Taiwan Business Bank, Taiwan Cooperative
Bank, Taishin International Bank and Woori
Bank are the lenders joining.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Morgan
Stanley and United Overseas Bank were the
mandated lead arrangers, bookrunners and
underwriters.
The borrowing is split into a A$1.08bn
tranche 1 and a A$370.3m tranche 2, one-
third of each carrying a two-year tenor and
the remainder a three-year maturity.
The facility offers interest margins of
155bp and 165bp over BBSY for the two and
three-year portions, respectively.
Proceeds fund the acquisition of the A$2bn
portion of dormitories run by Urbanest.
On December 11, AXA Investment
Managers – Real Assets said that its
Australian Student Accommodation
Program Joint Venture had entered into
binding contracts to acquire Australia’s
largest student accommodation portfolio
of 6,805 beds across 14 operating assets in
Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.
AXA IM – Real Assets and Scape, along
with another insurance giant Allianz,
formed the ASAP JV last September. Dutch
investment manager APG Groep joined the
JV later.
The loan is Scape’s second acquisition
financing in six months. In October, it
closed a A$339.63m dual-tranche term loan
backing its purchase of a student housing
portfolio from Atira Student Living.
CBA and Morgan Stanley underwrote
that financing, which is split into two and
three-year tranches with interest margins
of 175bp and 185bp over BBSY and top-level
fees of 20bp and 30bp, respectively.B&RXQWU\LQGG