HeidelbergCement signs new credit facility

HeidelbergCement has signed a new EUR3bn syndicated credit facility with a term of five years to refinance the existing credit facility which would have expired in December 2015. The revolving credit line was early refinanced due to favorable market conditions, the company said in a statement yesterday.

HeidelbergCement was able to execute the new self-arranged facility with significantly improved terms and conditions. "There was massive demand from the banking sector to enter the new facility but HeidelbergCement limited the participation exclusively to the lenders of the former credit facility," the German cement major highlighted. The new multi-currency credit facility is intended as liquidity back-up and can be used for cash drawdowns as well as for letters of credit and guarantees.

The new credit facility offers significantly better terms and conditions compared to the previous one, HeidelbergCement stated. Out of the box margin is reduced from 125bps to 95bps. In addition, formerly existing upstream guarantees and share pledges could be removed.

“The new syndicated credit facility agreement secures sufficient liquidity back-up for our company until 2019 at clearly better conditions,” says Dr Bernd Scheifele, CEO of HeidelbergCement. “The fact that we were able to maintain the same banking group while securing better terms and conditions without any security reiterates the excellent reputation of HeidelbergCement in the banking sector and reflects the strength of our relationships with the banks. The removal of all securities and upstream guarantees is another important milestone on our way back to improved credit ratings and benefits all bond holders who now rank pari passu with all bank lenders.”

The following banks were mandated as bookrunners and Mandated Lead Arrangers in this transaction: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bayern LB, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Commerzbank, Danske Bank, Deutsche Bank, Svenska Handelsbanken, Helaba, ING Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, LBBW, Mediobanca, Morgan Stanley, Nordea, RBI, RBS, SEB and Standard Chartered. Deutsche Bank is acting as documentation and facility agent.