Energy Development Corporation (EDC) closed a six-year $175-million transferable syndicated term loan facility with seven foreign banking groups.

Mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners of the transaction are Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ), Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., Chinatrust Commercial Bank, ING Bank N.V. Manila Branch, Maybank Group, Mizuho Corporate Banking, Ltd. and Standard Chartered Bank. ANZ acted as sole coordinator and documentation bank.

“The continued support of the existing lender group attests to their confidence in EDC’s capacity to sustain its momentum toward becoming the global leader in geothermal energy,” said Richard B. Tantoco, EDC president and COO.

The proceeds of the loan will be used solely to refinance EDC’s existing three-year $175M transferable syndicated term facility maturing on June 17, 2013. The new loan effectively lengthens the remaining life of the existing facility from to years to six years and substantially lowers interest costs. The total firm underwritten commitment received from the seven banks was in excess of $600M, three times more than the target amount.

EDC has a number of greenfield and expansion projects in the pipeline. Apart from the focus on its domestic growth, it is currently eyeing Asia and Latin America as potential regions for overseas expansion.

To fund its growth projects, capital expenditures, debt servicing requirements and other general corporate purposes, EDC issued a 3.5 times-oversubscribed 10-year $300M Reg S Bonds in January 2011. In May, the company signed a 15-year $75M facility with the International Finance Corporation.

“This is the third successful fundraising exercise executed by EDC in the past six months. This is a clear testament to the positive sentiment and outlook by diverse groups of investors and lenders to the company,” said Nestor Vasay, EDC senior vice president and CFO.