EDC closes $175-M club loan

MANILA, Philippines - Energy Development Corp. (EDC), the country’s largest geothermal energy producer, closed yesterday a six-year $175-million transferable syndicated term loan facility with seven foreign banking groups.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, EDC said Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ), Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., Chinatrust Commercial Bank, ING Bank N.V., Manila Branch, Maybank Group, Mizuho Corporate Banking Ltd., and Standard Chartered Bank were the lead arrangers and bookrunners for the issue.

ANZ acted as sole coordinator and documentation bank.

The proceeds of the loan will be used solely to refinance EDC’s existing three-year $175-million loan transferable syndicated term facility maturing on June 17, 2013.

The new loan effectively lengthens the remaining life of the existing facility from two years to six years and substantially lowers interest costs. The total firm underwritten commitment received from the seven banks was in excess of $600 million, three times more than the target amount.