France“s Compagnie de Saint-Gobain announced 18 November 2004 that the syndication of its EUR 1.8 billion 5-year syndicated loan facility launched on 12 October 2004 has closed successfully. The tran…
France“s Compagnie de Saint-Gobain announced 18 November 2004 that the syndication of its EUR 1.8 billion 5-year syndicated loan facility launched on 12 October 2004 has closed successfully. The transaction was oversubscribed with EUR 3.5 billion in bank commitments, allowing Saint-Gobain to increase the size of the facility to EUR 2.0 billion, the company said. The facility was signed on 17 November 2004. The new facility will replace the EUR 600 million syndicated facility maturing in September 2006 and the EUR 1.2 billion syndicated facility maturing in November 2007, and will be available for general corporate purposes including Commercial Paper backstop. The facility is expected to remain undrawn. The syndication has been supported by a group of 25 international banks. ABN AMRO Bank N.V., BNP Paribas, Calyon, CCF, J.P. Morgan PLC and Socit Gnrale Corporate and Investment Banking (SGCIB) were appointed as Mandated Lead Arrangers; BNP Paribas, J.P. Morgan PLC and SGCIB acted as Joint-Bookrunners for the syndication; Calyon acted as documentation agent and is Facility Agent for the new facility. The following banks participated as arrangers: Bank of America NA, Paris Branch, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Citibank, Crdit Suisse First Boston International, Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd., The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC, Crdit Mutuel CIC, Fortis Banque France, ING, Mediobanca, Santander Central Hispano S.A., Paris Branch; and as co-arrangers: Banca Intesa, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, IXIS Corporate & Investment Bank, Commerzbank, Dresdner Bank AG Niederlassung Luxemburg, PNC Bank National Association, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ), UBS Limited.