HONG KONG, May 27 (LPC) – Formosa Steel IB, the Australian unit of Taiwanese conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group, has launched a US$400m five-year loan into general syndication.

CTBC Bank and Mega International Commercial Bank are the mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners of the borrowing, which offers an interest margin of 65bp over term SOFR.

MLAs joining with tickets of US$100m or more earn a 3bp participation fee, while arrangers with US$50m–$99m receive 2bp. Participants with US$30m–$49m are offered 1bp.

The deadline for responses is July 10.

Units of Formosa Plastics
(https://www.loanconnector.com/User/Monitor/Loan.aspx...) – Formosa Petrochemical Corp, Formosa Plastics Corp, Nan Ya Plastics Corp and Formosa Chemicals & Fiber Corp – will provide letters of support for the latest deal.

Proceeds are for refinancing and working capital requirements of an iron ore mining project in Australia, which is a joint venture between Formosa Steel IB (31%) and FMG Iron Bridge (69%).

Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group (88%) and China’s Baosteel Group (12%) own FMG Iron Bridge.

In July 2021, Formosa Plastics raised two loans totalling US$980m that backs the project.

E.Sun Commercial Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp were the MLABs of a US$550m three-year loan for Formosa Resources Australia, a local unit of Formosa Plastics, which attracted 13 banks in general syndication.

First Commercial Bank and Taiwan Cooperative Bank were the MLABs of a US$430m five-year financing for Formosa Resources, a Taiwan-based unit of Formosa Plastics, which drew 10 banks in syndication.

The two loans pay interest margins of 75bp over Libor. The borrowers will pay any excess interest rate beyond a 40bp difference between TAIFX and Libor. (July 23 2021 story
(https://www.loanconnector.com/NewsDisplay/NewsContent...))

((Evelynn Lin: +852 3853 4302, evelynn.lin@lseg.com, Twitter: @LPCLoans))

(Editing by Prakash Chakravarti)

(c) Copyright Refinitiv