US$100,000,000 Syndicated Term Loan Facility to The Mauritius Commercial Bank Limited Mandated Lead Arrangers: ING Bank N.V and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Limited Port-Louis, 24th January 2006 - The Mauritius Commercial Bank Limited has today announced the successful completion of the US$100,000,000 syndicated Term Loan Facility arranged by ING Bank N.V. ( ING ) and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Limited ( SMBCE ) (together the Mandated Lead Arrangers and Joint Bookrunners ) The Facility, which launched at US$50,000,000, was largely oversubscribed and resulted in the Facility being increased to US$100,000,000. The facility is for general funding purposes and comprises of two tranches, a five year tranche and a three year tranche with two one-year extensions. The transaction was signed in Mauritius today (24 January 2006). The syndicate comprises: Mandated Lead Arrangers ING Wholesale Banking SMBCE Arrangers China Construction Bank Corporation, Johannesburg branch Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein - the investment banking division of Dresdner Bank AG Erste Bank Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd. Natexis Banques Populaires Wachovia Bank, National Association WestLB
Co-Arrangers Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich Aktiengesellschaft Senior Lead Managers American Express Bank GmbH Citigroup For further enquiries, please contact the undersigned. Raoul Gufflet Deputy Head International division The Mauritius Commercial Bank Limited Telephone: +230 202 5580 E-mail: raoul.gufflet@mcb.co.mu
ING CORPORATE BANKING ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, insurance and asset management to over 60 million private, corporate and institutional clients in over 50 countries. With a diverse workforce of about 114,000 people, ING comprises a broad spectrum of prominent companies that increasingly serve their clients under the ING brand. ING Wholesale Banking is the corporate and investment banking division of ING Group. SUMITOMO MITSUI BANKING CORPORATION EUROPE LIMITED (SMBCE) Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Limited is the 100% owned UK subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and is the regional headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation is a leading global financial company providing commercial banking and correspondent banking services around the world. The bank also provides leasing, securities brokerage, credit cards, consumer loans, venture capital and mortgage securitisation services. The bank has a network of 1,392 domestic locations in Japan and 35 overseas locations. THE MAURITIUS COMMERCIAL BANK LIMITED Established in 1838, The Mauritius Commercial Bank Limited is the oldest and most important bank of the Republic of Mauritius. It plays a key role in the country's economy by drawing on its thorough knowledge of local conditions and by extending its unflinching support to trade, agriculture, the textile industry, tourism and other sectors as well as individual customers, not only at its head office but also through its strategically located network of 45 branches and counters as well as 131 ATMs all over the island. Occupying some 45% of the banking sector locally, the Group started expanding overseas in 1991. It is now present in Paris, Reunion Island and Mayotte through its subsidiary Banque Francaise Commerciale Ocean Indien; in Madagascar through Union Commercial Bank, in Mozambique through Uniao Comercial de Bancos and, in the Seychelles under the name of The Mauritius Commercial Bank (Seychelles) Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary since 2003.
The Mauritius Commercial Bank s strategic vision lies in establishing the MCB Group as the benchmark reference for the provision of financial services in the region and even further, in line with the increased needs of our customers operating in the global economy. This successful expansion of its activities has had a meaningful impact on MCB's ranking, as it is now among the top-ten sub-saharian banking institutions and is also among the top-hundred banking institutions of the African region. Our vision - To be the obvious choice for financial services in the region and beyond. CHINA CONSTRUCTION BANK CORPORATION, JOHANNESBURG BRANCH China Construction Bank Corporation is one of the largest commercial banks in China. As at 31/12/2004, the Bank s total capital amounted to RMB194,744 million (US$24 billion), with total assets RMB3,904,785 million (US$482 billion). The bank has an extensive nationwide network, with 14,467 domestic and overseas branch outlets and subsidiaries. DRESDNER KLEINWORT WASSERSTEIN - the investment banking division of Dresdner Bank AG. DrKW is the investment bank of Dresdner Bank AG and a member of the Allianz Group. Headquartered in London and Frankfurt, with offices in leading international financial centres such as New York and Tokyo, it employs approximately 6,000 people around the world. With around 964 branch offices and about 29,349 full-time staff, the Dresdner Bank Group is active in over 50 different countries. In terms of assets and the number of customers, Dresdner Bank is one of the leading banking groups in Europe. Since 23 July 2001, Dresdner Bank has been part of the Allianz Group as the centre of competence for banking. The combination of Allianz and Dresdner Bank will create considerable value added through a wider range of financial products, broader sales channels and greater advisory capacity and expertise. Combining Allianz insurance products and Dresdner Bank s investment products also gives customers more convenient access to popular company and private pension products. ERSTE BANK Erste Bank der oesterreichischen Sparkassen AG is the lead Bank of the Austrian Savings Banks Group, with 12 mn clients Erste Bank has a market share of 30%, 24,000 branches and some 36,000 employees throughout Central Europe. Total assets EUR 156.9 billion as of Sept 30th, 2005.
MIZUHO CORPORATE BANK, LTD. Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd. is a core company within Japan's Mizuho Financial Group, one of the world's largest comprehensive financial service groups in terms of assets: (consolidated assets of Yen143 trillion as at March 2005). Globally, Mizuho Corporate Bank focuses on serving the needs of large corporate customers, providing a full range of specialised and leading-edge products by leveraging our comprenhensive financial capabilities. Mizuho Financial Group, with its core group companies Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd., Mizuho Bank, Ltd., Mizuho Securities, Ltd. and Mizuho Trust & Banking Co., Ltd., has a strong domestic network in Japan, and 57 overseas offices (including subsidiaries). This network is further complemented by the research and advisory capabilities of its affiliated companies. NATEXIS BANQUES POPULAIRES Listed on the Paris Eurolist, Natexis Banques Populaires is the financing, investment banking and services bank of the Banque Populaire Group, one of France s largest retail banking networks with 6,600,000 clients and 2, 692 branches. With more than 12,700 employees and a network of 117 offices abroad, Natexis Banques Populaires builds long-term domestic and international partnerships with its clientele of large and medium-sized companies and financial institutions. Drawing on its expertise in a wide range of complementary areas, Natexis Banques Populaires provides not only traditional banking services but also high value-added technologybased services. Through its subsidiary Coface, it is one of the world s leading providers of credit insurance. It is ranked among the leaders in asset management, private equity and financial engineering, and is one of the foremost brokerage firms. Natexis has maintained a strong position as an Arranger of syndicated loans for Financial Institutions and ranked 6th by number of transactions arranged in EMEA during 2005. WACHOVIA BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION Wachovia Corporation (NYSE:WB) is one of the largest providers of financial services to retail, brokerage and corporate customers, with retail operations from Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas, and retail brokerage operations nationwide. Wachovia had assets of $511.8 billion, market capitalization of $78.2 billion and stockholders equity of $47.9 billion at June 30, 2005. Its four core businesses, the General Bank, Capital Management, Wealth Management, and the Corporate and Investment Bank, serve 13 million household and business relationships primarily through 3,126 offices in 15 states and Washington, D.C. Its full-service retail brokerage firm, Wachovia Securities, LLC, also serves clients through 693 offices in 49 states and five Latin American countries. Our Corporate and Investment Bank serves clients primarily in 10 key industry sectors nationwide. Global services are offered through 40 international offices. Online banking and brokerage products and services are also available through Wachovia.com.
WESTLB WestLB, majority owned by the savings banks of North Rhein-Westphalia and Bradenburg, is a leading German commercial bank with assets in excess of Euro260 billion. Outside of its domestic market WestLB has representation in more than 30 countries worldwide, including all major capital markets in Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. RAIFFEISEN ZENTRALBANK ÖSTERREICH AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT RZB is the central institution of the Austrian Raiffeisen Banking Group, the country s most powerful banking group. It is a leading corporate and investment bank in Austria and also considers Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as its home market. Via listed subsidiary Raiffeisen International, it operates one of the leading banking networks in CEE with 16 subsidiary banks and numerous finance leasing companies in 16 markets. 9.2 million customers are served via 2,400 business outlets. AMERICAN EXPRESS BANK GmbH American Express Bank GmbH, Frankfurt is a fully owned subsidiary of American Express Bank Ltd and operates the global euro booking center - one of the company s three booking centers worldwide. A major focus of American Express Bank GmbH is on Financial Institutions businesses. Banks from over 100 countries maintain Euro accounts with us. We offer to our clients products and services in International Payments, Trade and Cash Letter clearing. We pride ourselves on our innovative products, state of the art systems, premium value services and growth which has outpaced the market growth in the past five years. CITIGROUP Citigroup the pre-eminent global financial services company with 275,000 employees managing some 200 million customer accounts across six continents in more than 100 countries, provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage and wealth management. Citigroup s headquarters for Sub-Saharan Africa is in Johannesburg South Africa and offers corporate and investment banking services. The network in Africa spans 16 countries from the Arabic-speaking north through Francophone and Anglophone West Africa, east and southern Africa, including branches in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Cameroon, Côte d Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon and Senegal. Another 23 countries are covered through a non-presence country unit based also based in Johannesburg. As one of the first multinational financial institutions to build a presence in Africa, Citigroup has participated in the development of markets in the continent and will continue to leverage its global banking expertise to position the firm as the brand of choice.