Indonesia Loan House

IFR Asia Awards 2018
3 min read
Asia
Chien Mi Wong

Despite currency volatility, looming elections, and a challenging macroeconomic environment, Standard Chartered never missed a beat in Indonesia in 2018, leading the biggest and most challenging transactions of the year.

StanChart introduced first-time borrowers to the international loan market, closed well-distributed deals and won repeat business from frequent borrowers.

“Indonesia has been the bright spot for the South-East Asian loan market in 2018,” said Amit Lakhwani, head of loan syndicate and distribution, Asia at StanChart. “We executed some of the marquee deals completed during the year and led deals across a wide variety of sectors and industries.”

The acquisition financing for Indonesia’s Adaro Energy and Australian private equity firm EMR Capital’s purchase of the Kestrel coal mine in Queensland was an example of StanChart’s ability to support a key Indonesian client with a complex financing package.

StanChart – acting as joint mandated lead arranger, bookrunner, original lender and hedging bank – underwrote an all-encompassing financing comprising term acquisition financing, bridge-to-bond funding and a mezzanine piece. Although some of the financing pieces fell away as the acquisition progressed, 14 lenders ended up participating in the US$1.69bn senior loan, quashing any concerns that the coal sector would struggle to attract finance on environmental grounds.

StanChart also brought debut borrowers to the market. It was one of three MLABs on Indonesian developer Agung Podomoro Land’s maiden syndicated loan. The company, which frequently taps bilateral loans and bonds, signed a Rp1.3trn (US$90m) two-year facility in September, with three other lenders joining, demonstrating StanChart’s ability to structure and syndicate local-currency transactions.

The bank was also busy in the telecom sector – a testing industry for many lenders given the intense competition between local players. Telecom tower operator Solusi Tunas Pratama’s US$587m-equivalent loan, Centratama Telekomunikasi’s debut US$195m facility and Tiphone Mobile Indonesia’s US$181m-equivalent three-year revolver all drew strong responses from the market.

StanChart also played key roles for financial sector borrowers. It was one of the original MLABs on Indonesia Eximbank’s largest offshore loan, helping the borrower close a US$1.15bn triple-tranche financing in July. That followed a joint lead role on a US$126.5m new-money loan for heavy-equipment dealer Chandra Sakti Utama Leasing in April.

The bank’s ability to win repeat business showed in its lead roles in STP’s US$587m loan, Transmedia’s US$300m refinancing in April, Delta Merlin Dunia Textile’s US$215m five-year loan signed in July, car rental company CSM Corporatama’s US$156m facility in May and Delta Dunia Tekstil’s US$150m loan in January.

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