InterOil Corporation announced that it has entered into a new US$470 million senior secured credit facility. Once the conditions precedent are satisfied, the new facility will refinance and replace the existing US$400 million secured capital expenditure facility.
As noted in the management information circular mailed to securityholders in relation to the proposed transaction with Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) ("ExxonMobil"), InterOil's independent Transaction Committee ("the Committee") has had numerous discussions regarding InterOil's financial position and recognized that the availability of additional capital would be important to InterOil on a going-forward basis. As such, in order to ensure that InterOil would have sufficient capital to meet its ongoing expenditure obligations, the Committee recommended to the Board that management of InterOil continue to explore the availability of additional funding options. Today's announcement is the culmination of those efforts and has been approved by the full Board.
The facility is secured at an annual interest rate of LIBOR plus 6.5% and terminates at the end of 2017. In addition, if InterOil receives the interim resource certification payment (as contemplated by the share purchase agreement dated March 26, 2014 between subsidiaries of InterOil and Total S.A.) prior to the closing of the proposed transaction with ExxonMobil, the amount of such payment must be used to repay amounts outstanding under the facility. Lenders in the facility include Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ), Intesa Sanpaolo SPA, Westpac PNG Limited, Bank of South Pacific Limited, Macquarie Bank Limited, Credit Suisse AG, Morgan Stanley and UBS AG. The financing was led by ANZ who acted as Structuring and Documentation Bank.