Asia Loan House, China and India Loan House: Standard Chartered
Standard Chartered differentiated itself from rivals with complex transactions, winning several sole mandates and bringing a number of debut borrowers, while also achieving wide distribution on many deals, making it this year’s Asia Loan House of the Year, as well as China and India Loan House.
Lending, especially related to M&A activity, was slow in Asia for most of the year as a result of high US dollar rates and economic uncertainty, but Standard Chartered found opportunities to demonstrate its strengths across the region.
StanChart’s strongest performances came from China and India, where it won multiple sole mandates and also arranged financing solutions to help borrowers tide over liquidity challenges, including tapping the burgeoning asset class of private credit.
“We demonstrated market leadership and resilience during the year, created momentum through our origination efforts and did not let market conditions dictate our year,” said Cristian Jonsson, global head of syndicate and financing risk. “We focused on being a solutions provider to our clients, helping them to navigate the markets, access new currencies and liquidity pools to address upcoming maturities, solve for financing needs and optimise financing costs,” he said.
Among the most eye-catching of StanChart’s deals was a US$1.25bn loan completed in February for Indian metals-to-mining conglomerate Vedanta Resources. StanChart provided an underwritten financing to the borrower in late 2023, by which time market conditions had become challenging with issuance in the international bond markets drying up for Asian credits, particularly high-yield names.
Vedanta Resources was running out of time to refinance its near-term bonds – the first of which was a US$1bn maturity on January 21 – and was also looking to address around US$4.5bn in bonds and loans falling due until June 2025.
As sole mandated lead arranger and bookrunner, StanChart closed a 2.5-year loan with some 10 credit funds, some of which came in as anchor investors ahead of the launch of a liability management exercise for the borrower in mid-December.
“We showed our ability to be innovative and bold, leading some of the more complex and strategic financings completed across the corporate, event-driven and private credit space in 2024, offering bespoke structuring and time critical financing solutions to deliver best execution for our clients and helped them to achieve desired outcomes,” said Amit Lakhwani, global head of loan syndicate.
StanChart won several sole mandates, many of them from debut borrowers. These included borrowings for Coupang Taiwan, a unit of New York-listed South Korean e-commerce company Coupang, Shanghai-listed tyre manufacturer Sailun Group (Hong Kong), Chinese mining services company JCHX Mining Management, Shenzhen-listed auto parts and aircraft manufacturer Zhejiang Wanfeng Aowei Auto Wheel and Vietnamese chemical distributor and manufacturer Stavian Chemical.
The bank notched up an impressive flow of deals from Greater China, managing to unlock liquidity among onshore as well as offshore lenders against a backdrop of a property crisis and macroeconomic headwinds in China.
“While the outlook for economic activity remained uncertain throughout the year, volumes were driven by refinancing and the need for funding growth or capital expenditure. The elevated cost of financing offshore, as a result of high USD/HKD base rates, saw many borrowers turn to the onshore market. We focused our efforts on delivering advice to clients, helping them to evaluate financing options available across both onshore and offshore markets, as well as different currencies, to determine what was most optimal from both a cost and use of proceeds perspective,” said Lakhwani.
Among other debut borrowers was courier services provider J&T Global Express, which increased its borrowing to US$1.25bn-equivalent from an original US$1bn-equivalent target. StanChart was one of the mandated lead arrangers, bookrunners and underwriters of the three-year borrowing, which attracted 13 banks in syndication. Proceeds partially refinanced a US$130m three-year private credit loan the borrower had raised in January 2022.
ESG EXCELLENCE
Sustainability-linked and green loans also formed a substantial part of StanChart’s deal flow, several of which were also on a sole basis. In mainland China and Hong Kong, these included green loans for Inalfa Roof Systems Group, a Netherlands-based unit of Chinese automotive parts supplier Beijing Hainachuan Automotive Parts, Chinese solar cell maker Tongwei Solar and Chint Solar Netherlands, a unit of smart energy solutions provider Zhejiang Chint Electrics. StanChart also sole led SLLs for Sailun and Tongcheng Travel Holdings.
Chint Solar’s €604m-equivalent (US$671m) three-year borrowing, which closed in September after attracting an overwhelming response from 19 lenders, marked the first green loan from Hong Kong to be launched into syndication with a second-party opinion.
Also closing in September to standout responses were Shenzhen-listed lithium battery maker Eve Energy’s HK$3.74bn-equivalent (US$480m) three-year green loan with 29 lenders joining and Sailun’s US$200m three-year financing that drew 25 lenders. Earlier in June, Tongwei Solar’s three-year loan wrapped up syndication with 20 banks, while Inalfa’s €350m three-year refinancing closed in March with 18 lenders joining.
In India, StanChart stood out with its sole mandates on social loans for non-bank finance companies Annapurna Finance and Muthoot Microfin, becoming the only bank to bring two debut microfinance firms to the offshore syndicated market. It also played a key role in loans for NBFCs like Piramal Capital and Housing Finance, helping them tap new pools of liquidity from Middle Eastern, Taiwanese and Sri Lankan lenders.
StanChart also showed its distribution expertise on a US$750m financing for Export-Import Bank of India. Liquidity was tight for the StanChart-led deal when it launched in April as it followed a US$750m five-year loan completed in February and was in the market at the same time as another ¥48bn (US$312m) 2.9-year loan for India Exim.
Nonetheless, StanChart brought in two Taiwanese lenders as sub-underwriters and significant commitments from Indian banks for US$370.73m combined. StanChart ended up with a final hold of just above 15% of the overall loan size after general syndication closed with seven lenders joining.
“We were able to capitalise on robust investor interest and a growing liquidity pool for India, underpinned by the strength of economic activity and strong fundamentals across a number of sectors,” said Lakhwani.
In addition to the loans from the FI sector, StanChart was also involved as joint lead on a US$900m 5.25-year term loan for JSW Steel that attracted 17 banks in general syndication upon closing in June, a US$600m five-year non-recourse refinancing for Dhamra LNG Terminal – a joint venture between Indian conglomerate Adani Group and French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies – that drew a dozen lenders and a US$458m five-year borrowing for a dividend recap from Blackstone’s India-headquartered portfolio company PGP Glass that closed late in the year with 11 lenders joining.
StanChart was also among the mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners on a A$775m (US$477m) five-year loan supporting Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners for its acquisition of a 49% stake in Onslow Iron Road Trust from ASX-listed Mineral Resources. The bank was also one of the active MLABs on a A$580m five-year loan backing EQT Private Capital Asia’s leveraged buyout of veterinary and animal health services provider VetPartners.
Among several other loans for high-profile borrowers was a HK$14.4bn SLL for a Gaw Capital-led consortium to refinance a retail portfolio of 16 shopping properties in Hong Kong and a Rmb3.653bn (US$505m) five-year term loan for London-listed multinational consumer healthcare group Haleon’s acquisition of the remaining stake it does not own in Tianjin TSKF Pharmaceutical, its joint venture in China.
In South-East Asia, StanChart was joint lead on a US$500m five-year term facility for Indorama Ventures Global Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Thai chemical producer Indorama Ventures, its debut borrowing structured with an SLL conversion feature, a M$1.3bn (US$280m) inaugural green loan for Singapore-headquartered Princeton Digital Group’s data centre in Malaysia and a ¥141.3bn debut SLL for Thai telecom operator True Corporation.
In May, StanChart as one of two leads helped Germany-headquartered local delivery firm Delivery Hero reach an agreement with lenders in its €540m term loan to change the currency from euros to South Korean Won. The amendment involved structuring a synthetic Won TLB placed with international lenders. The TLB makes all payments in US dollars, but its interest rate is benchmarked to Korea’s domestic certificate of deposit rate.
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