InterOil enters $470 million credit facility

Papua New Guinea-focused player InterOil has entered into a new $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, InterOil said on Tuesday.

InterOil is currently in the midst of a $2.5 billion takeover by the US-based energy giant ExxonMobil.

The company recently urged shareholders to vote prior to the upcoming special meeting scheduled for February 14, 2017.

InterOil said its independent transaction committee has had numerous discussions regarding the company’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, InterOil said.

The facility was secured at an annual interest rate of LIBOR plus 6.5% and will close at the end of 2017.

Lenders in the facility include Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), Intesa Sanpaolo, Westpac PNG, Bank of South Pacific, Macquarie Bank, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and UBS.