Peru’s BCP Takes Flexed Loan to Retail

Banco de Credito del Peru has successfully raised an MLA tier of banks for a $300m 3-year amortizing loan and launched the deal to retail syndication Tuesday. In order to get lenders to agree to the financing, however, BCP had to flex up the margin on the facility by 20bp, a sign of increasingly tight credit conditions in the loan market. As originally reported by LatinFinance, BCP launched in early January offering step-up pricing of Libor plus 50bp, 55bp and 65bp in years one, two and three respectively. But most of the MLA banks that participated demanded better pricing and the deal was flexed to 70bp, 75bp and 85bp. BofA, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, Dresdner, Natixis and Unicredit’s Italian branch joined as MLAs, while JPMorgan, Standard Chartered and Wachovia were the original bookrunners. The deal is now being offered to retail, with tickets of $20m, $15m, and $10m offering fees of 35bp, 30bp and 25bp over Libor, respectively. Flexing is increasingly becoming a part of LatAm loan syndications. It is particularly noticeable now, as deals that were mandated and launched last year look to close amid some of the roughest market conditions the region has seen in years.