Banco de Bogota Closes $500m Loan

Banco de Bogota has closed a $500m 3-year bullet facility, bringing on board a total of 12 banks and wrapping up a take-out for a bridge used to finance the acquisition of Central America’s BAC-Credomatic. Coming late in the year and at a time when European banks are retrenching, the transaction perhaps moved slower than initially expected, but leads Citi, HSBC and JPMorgan eventually brought in an eclectic group of 9 banks. Banco de Credito del Peru, Commercebank, Bank of Tokyo, Wells Fargo and Standard Chartered participated as MLAs, while Helm Bank, Corpbanca, Mercantil Commercebank and the Israel Discount Bank signed up as managers. The loan pays a margin of Libor plus 225bp, and fees ranged between 35bp to 100bp.