Eletrobras Counts on Seniors for Loan

Brazilian power company Eletrobras expects to close Friday syndication of a $450m CAF B loan, say bankers close to the transaction. The 7-year amortizing facility, which pays Libor plus 150bp, appears to be closing without flex, though it counted on a strong group of senior relationship lenders to do so. Citi, BNP and SocGen led with BBVA, ING, Natixis, Santander and Sumitomo as MLAs. A very limited number of retail banks are heard to have participated. In addition to the $450m, Eletrobras secured a 12-year $150m A loan from CAF, among the longest tenors seen recently for Brazilian corporates. CAF officials tell LatinFinance the Caracas-based multilateral will be looking at a bigger number of potential deals in Argentina and Brazil thanks to recent $500m commitments from each that are to be spent over the coming 5 years.