Netherland’s FMO arranges US $ 50mn syndicated loan for Nations Trust Bank

From left: NTB Executive Vice President Treasury & Investment Banking Indrajith Boyagoda, FMO Senior Investment Officer FI-Asia Pieter Gorgels, Standard Chartered Bank Public Sector and Development Organizations Director Deniz Harut, FMO CEO Peter van Mierlo, NTB Director/CEO Renuka Fernando, FMO FI-Asia Manager Marnix Monsfort, Actiam Managing Director The Brouwers and FMO Syndication Associate Alessio Crestani

Dutch development bank, FMO, recently arranged a US $ 50 million syndicated loan for Nations Trust Bank (NTB) to support the bank’s business banking activities, which have been geared more towards Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

This syndicated transaction is FMO’s first repeat deal for NTB, following a subordinated loan which was provided 8 years earlier to further the bank’s ambitious growth strategy.

Apart from supporting the bank to obtain stable funding to grow its business,the syndicated loan also enabled NTB to reach out to respected financiers such as Standard Chartered Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, First Commercial Bank (Taiwan) and Atlantic Forfaitierungs, most of whom are lending to NTB for the first time thus exposing the bank to a highly diverse group of financiers in terms of geographies, backgrounds and areas of expertise. 

NTB can now further build on these new relationships and explore cooperation beyond the funding obtained through the current facility.  

With this syndicated facility, FMO was able to blend tranches from commercial lenders and themselves to offer an overall facility with a 5 year tenor that resulted in a maturity profile that aligned well with the client’s needs. 

Further, FMO was able to include two participants in the syndicated loan who were first time lenders in a FMO arranged syndicated transaction.

Linda Broekhuizen, Chief Investment Officer of FMO commented, “We are honoured to have been awarded the opportunity to further deepen our relationship with Nations Trust Bank, leveraging on the support of established and new partnerships with commercial financiers. Together, we can contribute to driving local prosperity in Sri Lanka”.

NTB Director/CEO Renuka Fernando stated that the facility not only provided stable longer term funding to the bank but also opened doors to broad base funding options by establishing relationships with other commercial lenders some of whom are new to the Sri Lankan market. 

NTB is one of the top 10 banks in Sri Lanka and is one of the fastest growing and most dynamic banks in the country with a branch network spanning across nearly 100 locations. 

The bank is also a frontrunner in promoting and adopting Fintech solutions as a means to further enhance its product and service offering.