ENAP Seeks Loan Funding

ENAP plans to hold bank meetings Thursday for a $300m 5-year loan via Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, BBVA, HSBC and JP Morgan, says a banker away from the trade. Pricing details have yet to be unveiled. Earlier in the year, the Chilean state-owned oil company sent out RFPs to raise $500m in the loan market via either 3 or 5-year tenors, but bankers hadn’t discounted the possibility of a 10-year USD bond or perhaps a 5-year local loan. Given the state of the market, it is hardly surprising that the borrower is seeking a smaller size at this stage and focusing on core relationship banks. The company had been eyeing the loan market as early as last year, but opted instead to issue a US$500m 10-year bond which was priced in August at 99.593 with a 5.250% coupon to yield 5.300%, or UST+240bp, inside of the 250bp (+/-5bp) guidance. Demand for the paper reached a healthy US$2.5bn despite a downgrade that year. BAML, BBVA, BNP and Scotia managed the bond sale.