Resorts World Sentosa, sponsored by Genting, sign­ed the S$4.19 billion ($3.2 billion) refinancing of debt that back­ed its 2008 development of the Sentosa casino resort in Singa­pore in Febru­ary 2011, after getting the deal underwritten in December 2010. Four new banks joined the 15 existing lenders and commitments to the deal were processed in under two weeks.

Resorts World encouraged quick commitments with an extra 20bp fee for banks that joined before 25 Decem­ber 2010. Banks were invited to participate at three levels. Mandated lead arrangers could join on tickets of S$250 million or above for a 105bp fee. Banks that con­tributed between S$200 million and S$249 million got 95bp fees and lead arranger status, while those that took tickets of S$160 million and S$199 million for 80bp fees and an arranger title.

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, DBS, HSBC, OCBC and SMBC underwrote the loan as mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners, and Maybank, Commerzbank and Royal Bank of Scotland also joined as mandated lead arrangers. Bangkok Bank, CIMB and Credit Agricole committed as lead arrangers while Bank of Nova Scotia, National Australia Bank, Bank of East Asia, BNP Paribas, Hong Leong Finance, Citibank, RHB Bank and Bank of China joined as arrangers.

Resorts World closed a S$4.19 billion loan to finance the project in July 2008. The new loan rewards the company for decreasing its leverage with a wider margin. According to Genting the refinanc­ing was also less restrictive than the original facilities, allowing the borrower more flexi­bility in the use of its funds.

The new loan initially has a margin of 160bp over the Singa­pore swap offer rate. This then falls to 120bp if the company’s debt-to-Ebitda ratio drops from 3x to 2.5x or below. The 2008 loan carried a margin of 175bp over the Singapore swap offer rate.

Bank of Nova Scotia, Hong Leong Finance, Citi and Bank of China were not part of the earlier deal. DZ Bank and JP Morgan were part of the original deal but did not participate in the new loan.

The resort opened in February 2010 and reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of S$389.8 million on revenues of S$775.2 million for the three months ended December 2010.

Resorts World Sentosa
Description: S$4.42 billion casino resort refinancing
Status: Underwritten December 2010; syndicated February 2011
Sponsor: Resorts World at Sentosa/Genting Singapore
Mandated lead arrangers and underwriters: BTMU, DBS Bank, HSBC, OCBC, SMBC
Mandated lead arranger: Maybank, Commerzbank, RBS
Lead arrangers: Bangkok Bank, CIMB, Credit Agricole
Arrangers: Bank of Nova Scotia, National Australia Bank, Bank of East Asia, BNP Paribas, Hong Leong Finance, Citibank, RHB Bank, Bank of China
Sponsor legal counsel: Rajah & Tann
Lender legal counsel: Hogan Lovells, Lee & Lee, Wong Tan & Molly Lim, Conyers Dill & Pearman, Cains
Technical adviser: Faithful+Gould