Syndication of the £8.97bn loan backing the Ferrovial-led bid for British airports operator BAA has closed, having raised as much as £14bn, bankers say.
Banco Santander Central Hispano, Calyon, Citigroup, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland are arranging the deal for Airport Development and Investment (ADI), a consortium comprising Ferrovial, Canada's Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Singapore's GIC Special Investments.
The package is split into a £4.72bn senior term loan, a £2.25bn senior capital expenditure and revolving credit facility, and £2bn of second lien, all with a tenor of five years.
"The facility will be signed in a few weeks but there will be substantial scale-backs," said one loans banker. "Despite it being a structured deal it proved a huge success."
Bankers said there were at least 35 commitments to the loan.
Lenders were invited to commit £400m as sub-underwriters of the senior debt for a proposed target hold of £250m and 60bp in fees.
One bank requested a final hold of £500m, bankers say, but will be allocated much less.
Bankers expect allocations to be scaled back to well below the proposed £250m target hold.
One said banks were unlikely to receive more than £170m if a general syndication follows later this year.
"There were some banks that were invited but couldn't commit £400m," he said. "They were given the impression that a retail phase would follow the sub-underwriting, and that they would be given the chance to join through the secondary market, too."
A banker close to the deal said that no decision had been taken about a further sell-down.
Banks interested in the junior debt were offered take and hold tickets of £75m for a 75bp fee or £25m for a 50bp fee.
Several banks committed much more — Instituto de Crédito Oficial £200m and HSH Nordbank £150m, EuroWeek hears — quickly dispelling fears that £2bn of second lien could not be placed without tapping the institutional market.
The senior debt pays an out of the box margin of 100bp over Libor and the junior debt 400bp. Both are linked to a ratings grid.
