(This story was originally published Friday.)
CAIRO (Zawya Dow Jones) State-controlled Qatar Telecom, or Qtel
(QTEL.DO), said Friday it secured a new $2 billion dual-tranche
revolving credit facility to lower its borrowing costs.
The telecom operator's original intention was to raise up to
$1.5 billion by approaching its core relationship banks, it said in
a regulatory filing to the London Stock Exchange.
"But due to an extraordinary response Qtel received commitments
in the amount of $2.75 billion, leading to oversubscriptions of
83%," it said.
The deal is split between a $1.25 billion tranche due in 2013
and a $750 million tranche due in 2015.
The dual-tranche revolving credit facility will be used for
general corporate purposes including a $2 billion credit line that
matures in 2011.
Qtel is the first Gulf borrower to secure a syndicated corporate
loan deal with a five-year tenor since September 2008.
Initial mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners on the new loan
are BNP Paribas SA, DBS, Qatar National Bank, Societe Generale SA
and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC. Qatar National Bank acted as
the financial adviser to Qtel.
The bookrunners were joined by Barclays PLC, Bank of
Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC, Samba Bank Ltd.,
SMBC, Standard Chartered Bank PLC, WestLB AG and Citibank as
initial mandated lead arrangers ahead of launch of general
syndication.
Qtel Wedneday reported first-quarter profit more than doubled to
1.21 billion Qatari riyals ($329.8 million) on a reduced royalty
fee it pays to the government of QAR554 million.
-By Summer Said, Dow Jones Newswires; +2010-990-9593;
summer.said@dowjones.com