China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Gets US$160 mln Unsecured Loan

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, July 18, 2003

China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Gets US$160 mln Unsecured Loan

China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corporation Limited (CAO) on Friday secured 160 million US dollars in a syndicated term loan by 10 international banks.

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China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corporation Limited (CAO) on Friday secured 160 million US dollars in a syndicated term loan by 10 international banks.

The five-year credit facility is on a completely unsecured basis, i.e., the loan requires no security, no guarantee, nor any letter of comfort from the parent company.

"This is the first time that an overseas Chinese firm has entered into an unsecured loan facility of this size," said Chen Jiulin, managing director and CEO of CAO, at the signing ceremony Friday morning.

"CAO has come a long way since I arrived in Singapore six yearsago," said Chen. "We only had capital of 384,000 Singapore dollars(about 219,000 US dollars) in 1997."

Now the company is worth over 100 million US dollars, he said.

CAO is undergoing a significant strategic transformation, said Chen, "we are focusing on investment because it helps diversify our profit base and bring stable growth."

Francis Repka, deputy chief executive of Societe Generale (SG) Asia Limited, agent bank and mandated arranger of the loan facility, said Friday morning that following rapid economic growthof China, import of oil, in particular jet fuel procurement via CAO to the country, will continue to increase.

"It is the pleasure of SG to work with all the syndicated bankssuccessfully assisting CAO to tap the international capital market," he said.

CAO is a subsidiary of Beijing-based China Aviation Oil HoldingCompany, which is a giant state-owned aviation transportation logistics group. Incorporated in 1993, CAO has grown from a small shipment broker to one of the world's leading international oil traders. It was listed on the main board of the Singapore Exchangein 2001.

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