IDB Secures Additional €100 Million For Dairy Expansion Under Refinancing Package
The Irish Dairy Board (IDB) has completed the refinancing of its existing €250 million syndicated banking facility replacing it with a new three year syndicated bank loan facility of €350 million at competitive pricing, to meet domestic expansion and international growth requirements. The participant Banks are Allied Irish Banks, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, HSBC, Ulster Bank and Rabobank, with IBI Corporate Finance advising on the deal.
This new facility comprises two parts – a €160 million syndicated loan facility to fund IDB’s existing requirements and to invest in developing its international growth strategy; and a €190 million committed syndicated Reverse Invoice Discounting facility (RID) to fund the working capital requirements of IDB’s members. This will provide IDB’s members with an additional €50 million and greater security of funding, replacing the previous uncommitted working capital funding lines provided heretofore by IDB to its members.
The RID is a recent development in supplier financing by international banks to fund the working capital requirements of their international corporate clients. IDB and Rabobank, as lead bank and arranger of the RID, and the other participating banks, have developed a facility which accommodates the specific funding requirements of IDB’s members.
The RID will be used by IDB as the platform to develop a scalable funding solution to finance the increase in working capital requirements that will arise as a result of the anticipated increased milk expansion post the abolition of milk quotas in 2015.
