China Bank settles $158-M loan

The SM Group’s China Banking Corp. (China Bank) announced Monday that it paid off a $158-million syndicated loan ahead of schedule.

China Bank said in a stock exchange filing that the three-year loan was due June 2018.

“The strong growth in foreign currency deposit has enabled us to not only raise the balance earlier than expected,” William C. Whang, executive vice president and China Bank chief operating officer, said in the filing. “China Bank likewise confirmed that it also took advantage of favorable changes in market conditions to be able to repay the loan sooner.”

The loan was paid in two tranches. The first was $60 million, paid in March of this year, and the remaining balance on June 29, 2017.

China Bank successfully returned to the capital markets in June 2015 with this facility since its $125-million floating rate certificates of deposit issue in 1996 and 1997.

It said proceeds of the loan were used on “better yielding assets as well as funding for corporate borrowers and project financing deals.”

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. was the mandated lead arranger and book runner. KDB Group (The Korea Development Bank), and Mizuho Bank Ltd.-Singapore Branch were the mandated lead arrangers. Doha Bank Q.S.C. was the lead arranger.