Samarco Out with RFP

Brazilian iron ore miner Samarco, which is jointly owned by Vale and BHP Billiton, is looking for a $400m export pre-payment term loan, say loan bankers. Samarco is said to be looking for either a 7-year or 10-year maturity for the loan, according to market participants, who say they are surprised by the maturity, which is longer than those seen in recent transactions. “This is quite a long tenor, but a lack of paper means borrowers will be more likely to push out the maturity to longer than 5-years, which is what we have seen more recently,” says one syndicated loans banker. The world’s second-largest exporter of iron ore pellets closed a $400m 5-year club deal in December. BNP, HSBC, ING, RBS and SMBC committed $80m each, at a spread of 160bp over Libor. The loan was for general corporate purposes, and for funding a $3bn expansion plan for 2011, according to bankers with knowledge of the transaction.