NEW YORK, April 22, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) — ENDESA signed a Euro 2,000 million syndicated loan with 38 financial institutions to cover its financing needs, namely to fund planned capex and short-term debt redemption.
The features of the operation, the largest ever signed by ENDESA, are as follows:
* A loan tranche and a credit line of Euro 500 million and Euro 1,500 million respectively.
* A five-year maturity, with single repayment upon maturity and with the option, for the lenders, of extending the maturity to seven years during the first two years.
* A fixed rate of Euribor + 18.5bp has been set for the loan tranche and a fixed rate of Euribor + 16.5bp for the credit line, with an additional fee of 2.5bp if the amount drawn down is over 50% and a drawdown fee for the credit line of 6bp over the undrawn amount.
The following are the lead banks in the syndicated operation, in which a total of 38 Spanish and foreign blue-chip financial institutions are participating: BBVA, Barclays, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Calyon, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Citibank, Dresdner Bank, HSBC, ICO, JP Morgan Chase, Mediobanca, Societe Generale, Unicredito, HVB, Banesto, Deutsche Bank, ING, La Caixa, SCH and ABN AMRO. Also participating are: Banca di Roma, Banca Intesa, BBK, Fortis, IXIS Corporate, Mizuho, Sanpaolo IMI, WestLB, Helaba, Morgan Stanley, Sumitomo, Cadif, Caja Astur, Banco Itau, Ibercaja and Caja de Ahorros de Badajoz.
The operation, which underscores the market’s confidence in ENDESA’s creditworthiness, should provide the Company with greater flexibility in managing its debt and complements its strategy of mainly tapping the capital markets.
ENDESA had a net cash pile (ex Enersis) at March 31 this year of Euro 4,750 million, so the new Euro 2,000 million will take this to Euro 6,750 million.
In addition, ENDESA has renegotiated the terms and conditions of the long-term bilateral credit lines that the Company has signed with 13 financial institutions worth a total of Euro 3,758 million. This further bolster’s its cash situation. In accordance with the new terms, the maturity has been extended to five years with an option to extend this to seven years, while this cost has declined in the line with the more propitious conditions on the financial markets.
Once short-term debt redemptions have been refinanced with the new Euro 2,000 million loan operation, the average life of ENDESA’s debt excluding Enersis will rise from 4.89 to 5.75 years. If these new operations were extended to seven years, the average life would be 6.5 years.
Both operations, in line with ENDESA’s strategy in recent years of bolstering its balance sheet, strengthen the Company’s already high liquidity level by extending the average maturity of its debt and reducing interest costs.
