BP YPC Acetyls (Nanjing) has signed a yuan and US dollar combined term-loan facility valued at about $782 million to fund the construction and operation of an acetic acid plant in Nanjing.
The company - an equity joint venture between BP International and Yangzi Petrochemical, a subsidiary of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) - signed the deal on Thursday.
It is understood to be the first combined yuan and US dollar-denominated facility jointly arranged by a foreign bank and a domestic bank, and in which both lenders participated in both tranches.
'It is very common that the international bank will take care of the foreign currency-denominated tranche, while a mainland bank will handle the yuan-denominated tranche, but not both,' said a source familiar with the deal.
According to sources, the term loan has a US$70.49 million tranche and a 246 million yuan tranche.
The debt is fully guaranteed by BP International and Yangzi Petrochemical.
