Australian blue-chip companies are trying to load up on additional debt to help them through the coronavirus crisis, with Qantas on Wednesday securing $1.05bn and Transurban $815m.
Top Australian and American banks are in the lending syndicate, which includes ANZ, CBA, Westpac, NAB, Citi, JPMorgan, Bank of China, BNP, Sumitomo Mitsui and OCBC.
Qantas, with loans worth $5.1bn, told the market Wednesday that the debt was being secured against part of the group’s fleet of unencumbered aircraft, which were brought with cash in recent years.
The 10-year loan has an interest rate of 2.75 per cent. It takes Qantas’s cash balance to $2.95bn with an additional $1bn of undrawn debt available.
Meanwhile, Transurban has done a deal to raise new debt. The company said the $815m of debt for its Hills M2 Motorway was through two new bank facilities, funded through the Asian loan market.
The funds were to refinance debt due in November and December 2022, replacing them with 10 and 15-year facilities.
In other news, Citi real estate and infrastructure equities analyst David Lloyd is joining Australian fund manager Ausbil.
Mr Lloyd will work at Ausbil as an investment analyst, covering real estate and other sectors. He will leave investment bank Citi to start his new role next week.
Before joining Citi as a director in 2017, Mr Lloyd worked at Morgan Stanley from 2014 to 2017 as an executive director, and at CBA as a senior equities analyst from 2009 to 2014.
He was also an equities analyst at Goldman Sachs from 2006 to 2009.
Vulcan Steel seeks to expand footprint, with InfraBuild a target
Vulcan Steel has signalled it intends to seek out “new opportunities” to expand its footprint in Australia, and is eager to explore acquisitions.
Is it third time the charm for Star equity raising?
There’s talk Star Entertainment once again has an equity raising on its agenda.