Africa Loans

The loan for South Africa’s MTN, which is partly underwritten by BAML and Citi, may have to include an accordion feature to hit its $1bn target size, said a banker on the deal.

The $4bn of loans for Steinhoff’s acquisition of Mattress Firm are in syndication and due to be signed next week, according to a banker involved in the deal.

A couple of banks are finalising their approvals for the $1bn loan for South African telecoms group MTN and the deal is due to sign before the end of next week.

Stanbic Bank Uganda, a unit of South Africa’s Standard Bank, is refinancing an $85m loan signed last year for a smaller one, according to one banker on the deal.

The Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (PTA) is preparing to refinance a $320m credit line and is in the process of choosing banks to lead the deal.

Steinhoff has agreed a loan with one new lender and bumped up its bridge facility with Crédit Agricole and UniCredit. The steps were taken to support the retailer’s increased offer for the UK’s discount retailer Poundland.

South Africa's Steinhoff is lining up $3.8bn in loans to buy bedding retailer Mattress Firm. The acquisition will give the retailer a foothold in the US consumer market.

African Export-Import Bank has appointed a new director for syndications, after hiring another senior loan syndication banker earlier this summer.

A group of international banks are understood be close to signing a $1.4bn project finance loan for a major oil and gas field development, expected to transform Ghana's domestic energy distribution.

MTN, the South African telecoms group, is syndicating a $1bn new money loan that could involve non-relationship lenders.

African Export-Import Bank is near completion of a $300m loan aimed at Chinese lenders, and most of the deal is guaranteed by China Eximbank.

Lenders are still keen to underwrite sterling loans after the UK’s Brexit vote — as shown in Steinhoff’s £452m deal — said one head of Emea loan syndicate.