Hogan Lovells has advised EDF in connection with a €4 billion syndicated multicurrency revolving loan facility. This new line of credit has a maturity of 5 years, with the facility to extend it to 7 years.
This new facility will allow the EDF group to refinance 50% of its existing €6 billion syndicated revolving loan, whilst providing a €1 billion extension in its credit lines. Hogan Lovells had previously advised EDF in connection with its existing syndicated facility in 2005.
As a result, the EDF group now has two syndicated credit lines at its disposal: a €3 billion facility with a maturity date falling in March 2012, and a €4 billion facility with a maturity date falling no earlier than November 2015.
These two facilities, the purpose of which is to provide for the group’s general corporate cash-flow needs, give EDF access to both short-term swingline borrowing and to revolving loans.
The Hogan Lovells team in Paris advising EDF was led by partner Sharon Lewis, worldwide head of the International Debt Capital Markets Practice Area, with senior associate Reza Mulligan and associate David Postlethwaite.
Linklaters LLP (Nathalie Hobbs, partner, Lauren Hanley and Nathalie Barzilai) advised Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank as facility agent, as well as the mandated lead arrangers under the facility.
EDF is a long-standing client of Hogan Lovells, with the firm having advised EDF in relation to a number of notable financing operations in recent years including the £11 billion financing of its acquisition of British Energy Group plc. in 2008 and the launch of its 40-year sterling bond issue in September 2010. Most recently, Hogan Lovells advised EDF in connection with its November 2010 debt exchange offer.
