The signing ceremony of the credit facility agreement to finance “nam con son gas 2 pipeline - phase 1” project

Among the participants in the ceremony, there were Mr. Do Manh Tuan – Deputy Head of the Department of Sector Economics – Government Office; representatives of Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group including Mr. Vu Khanh Truong – member of the Board, Mr. Ninh Van Quynh – Vice President; representatives of PV GAS including Mr. Do Khang Ninh – President and CEO, Mr. Duong Manh Son – Standing Vice President, members of the Board of Directors and Board of Management, managers of departments and subsidiaries; representative Cathay United Bank, Mr. Chen Zu Pei – Chairman of the Board; representatives of the bank syndicate; and the representative of the State Bank of Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Minh – Deputy Director of the Bank in HCMC.

PetroVietnam Gas Joint Stock Corporation (PV GAS) is one of key subsidiaries of Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group that contributes over 67,000 billion dong to the revenue of oil and gas industry, and over 5,700 billion dong to the State Budget, and is listed among the enterprises with the most contributions to the state budget in the last years. PV GAS is a continuously growing and developing corporate with a lot of projects in Gas industry such as constructing gas gathering/distribution pipelines, gas processing plants, investing in the storages/terminals to import gas products.

“Nam Con Son 2 Gas Pipeline - Phase 1” Project invested by PV GAS is expected to construct a gas gathering and transportation pipeline of 151.35 km long and with a pipe diameter of about 26” starting from Thien Ung field to Tie-In point (Km 207+500) connecting to Bach Ho pipeline (BK4A) to gather gas from Dai Hung and Thien Ung to the coast to supplement increasingly insufficient gas supply in the future in the South East region. This is a very important project, has a special meaning, and is strategic to gas industry in general and PV GAS in particular. This Project will develop the infrastructure to promote petroleum exploration and production activities in the deep water of Nam Con Son Basin to develop natural gas fields to supply increasing consumption demands as well as to establish territorial water sovereignty and sea economy of Vietnam. Besides, this Project is also intended to create technical infrastructure for importing gas in the future.

“Nam Con Son 2 Gas Pipeline - Phase 1” Project is a major project with total Project investment capital of equivalently more than 400 million USD. Ratio of borrowing capital is 70% (280 million USD) of total investment capital.

The credit facility agreement to finance 280 million USD for “Nam Con Son 2 Gas Pipeline – Phase 1” Project is a syndicated loan facility granted by the foreign bank syndicate consisting of 11 sponsoring banks, i.e. Cathay United Bank, Bangkok Bank, The Bank of Tokyo – Mitsubishi UFJ, Oversea – Chinese Banking, Frist commercial Bank, HuaNan Bank, May Bank, Taipei Fubon Bank, E. Sun commercial Bank, Taiwan Shin Kong Commercial Bank, and The Shang Hai Commercial & Savings Bank. This is a major loan in recent years in Vietnamese market for which Cathay United Bank is the capital arrangement coordinator. With a loan term of up to 7 years (extended by further 2 years subject to a contract extension clause) for unsecured loan, this loan receives a special attention in the market of syndicated loan because it exceeds the maximum term of 5 years for a foreign syndicated loan in Vietnam, as well as in the region, contributing to a new pre-case for Vietnamese companies to apply for foreign loans with better conditions than those currently, especially in terms of disbursement schedule and term of the loan.

The signing of the credit facility agreement to finance “Nam Con Son 2 Gas Pipeline - Phase 1” Project between PetroVietnam Gas Joint Stock Corporation and a syndicate of foreign banks led by Cathay United Bank as the capital financing coordinator has created a new path for Asian banking industry in general and Taiwanese banking industry in particular. It is expected in the future that Cathay Finance Corporation shall continue supply more good-quality financial services to the Oil and Gas Group, PV GAS as well as other customers in Vietnamese market.

Participating in the ceremony, related parties expressed their happiness about the successful cooperation, promised recognizable common achievements, and committed to endeavor for common objectives.