IPIC completes $5.0bn fund raising

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., HSBC Bank Middle East Limited and Banco Santander, S.A. were appointed as Coordinators to jointly arrange syndicated term loan facilities (the Facilities) principally to support the following financing requirements:

i) The acquisition of 100% of the outstanding common shares of NOVA Chemicals;

ii) The acquisition of 32.5% of the issued share capital of Compania Espanola de Petroleos owned by Banco Santander, S.A. and 5% of the issued share capital currently owned by Union Fenosa, S.A;

iii) The refinancing of IPIC's existing EUR975m Term Loan Bridge Facility which matures in July 2009.

The Facilities will be split equally between two tranches; a one year Bridge Facility (Tranche A) that is contemplated to be refinanced via the debt capital markets and a two year Term Loan Facility (Tranche B) with one year extension option at each lender's discretion.

IPIC engaged with sixteen Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers (IMLAs) to support the transaction with take and hold commitments of $400m each. The resulting total commitment of $6.4bn was scaled back by IPIC to $5.0bn, in order to ensure consistency with IPIC's stated financing objectives.

IPIC's Managing Director, HE Khadem Al Qubaisi, said:

"It is particularly gratifying to see this level of response from the IMLAs, some of whom have not done business with IPIC previously - in what are still very difficult credit markets. We interpret this outstanding outcome as a clear signal from the global banking community that IPIC is a partner banks want to work with."