The Facility has a maturity of five years. Launched initially at €1.25bn, the facility has been increased to €1.5bn after strong support received in syndication. The Borrower's core relationship banks were invited as Mandated Lead Arrangers and all 12 banks have committed to the facility. The facility will replace the existing €1bn syndicated facility maturing in November 2003 and the US$1bn syndicated facility maturing in May 2005, and will be used for general corporate purposes, including liquidity backstop for CP programmes.
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein acted as Mandated Coordinator and Sole Bookrunner for the transaction.
BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Den norske Bank, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Fokus Bank, Handelsbanken, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Morgan Stanley, Nordea Bank Norge, SEB Merchant Bank, and William Street Commitment Corporation joined the transaction as Mandated Lead Arrangers.
Telenor is Norway's largest telecommunications group, with substantial international mobile operations. The Company is based at Fornebu outside Oslo and is 62.7% owned by the Kingdom of Norway.
Telenor is rated and A2 by Moody's and A- Standard and Poor's, both with stable outlook.