PDO was "days away" from completing the loan, according to one banker, who said the borrower is considering making allocations to banks after a second round of syndication.
A number of other Omani borrowers are also said to be in the market for loans, including Oman Oil Company Exploration & Production, Dhofar Power Company and Oman Shipping Company.
PDO received $3.4bn of commitments from its core lenders and then held a bank meeting in London at the end of May to liaise with new banks that might be interested in joining the deal.
“They’ve already got more than they need, which is a nice position to be in,” said one banker involved in the loan. “They had $3.4bn of commitments before the London roadshow, so you could expect it’s more than that now. The decision rests with the borrower how to allocate this. We should know more in a few days.”
PDO first launched its debut loan as a club deal with a small group of lenders earlier this year. But it subsequently decided to open it up to more banks to broaden its banking pool.
But PDO, which is owned 60% by the government of Oman and 34% by Royal Dutch Shell, is not committed to increasing the number of banks in the deal after the London meeting, according to a lead banker.
PDO asked lenders for tickets of $300m each in the initial round of the deal. The tickets offered in the second round have been smaller.
The five year loan pays all-in pricing (margin plus fees) of 190bp. It is structured as a pre-export finance facility and HSBC is sole financial adviser to PDO.