Kuwait’s Burgan Bank in talks for $350mn loan refinancing

Reuters

Kuwait’s Burgan Bank, the country’s third largest lender by assets, is in early discussions with banks for the refinancing of a $350 million loan due in December, sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday.
The bank raised the original debt
facility in 2015 with a group of seven banks, including regional and international lenders.
The new loan would refinance the amount raised at that time, but the bank is considering extending the maturity of the facility by one
year, meaning the new transaction could have a three-year tenor. A spokesman for Burgan Bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new loan will “most likely” be provided by the same group of banks, but no decision has been taken yet as the discussions are at an early stage, said one of the sources. Established in 1977, Burgan Bank is rated ‘A+’ with a stable outlook by Fitch.
In a statement last month, the agency cited “an extremely high probability of support from the Kuwaiti authorities to all domestic banks if needed” as one of the
reasons for its rating decision.
The Kuwaiti lender said last month its nine-month profit attributable to shareholders amounted to 53.9 million dinars ($178 million), against 48.6 million dinars one year earlier.