Santander Chile Woos Taiwan Lenders

Santander Chile has received a $175m syndicated loan from 8 banks, including 3 Taiwanese participants. “We went to Asia and specifically to Taiwan, because we knew the potential liquidity there but did not have much of a relationship, so saw an opportunity,” says a spokesperson for Santander Chile. “This was a very good first step and based on the success of the deal we will look to increase relations with banks from Taiwan in the future.” The deal was upsized from $125m originally planned. This was despite early concerns about the bank’s connection to Spanish risk because of the Southern European sovereign debt crisis. “Participants did ask about this at the start, but after the bank meetings they were convinced by the group’s strong financials,” says the spokesperson. Pricing for the18-month loan was Libor+80bp for Aa3 risk. The loan was syndicated through Standard Chartered, who was lead arranger as well as bookrunner and took a $45m ticket. Mizuho, Banco de Credito del Peru and Malayan Banking Berhad were MLAs, committing $35m, $30m and $25m respectively. Bank of Taiwan was an arranger at $15m, and Taiwan’s Mega International Commercial Bank as well as Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena came in as co-arrangers with $10m each. Land Bank of Taiwan participated with a $5m commitment. Proceeds from the loan will be used for general corporate purposes, in particular to finance lending, according to a statement from the borrower.