KLM Royal Dutch Airlines last Friday signed a new five-year EUR 540 million credit facility. The facility is supported by an international group of 11 relationship banks. Citibank, ING Bank, Rabobank and Société Générale acted as Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners, CALYON and Natexis-Banques Populaires as co-Mandated Lead Arrangers and BNP Paribas, Crédit Mutuel-CIC, Deutsche Bank, Fortis and WestLB as Arrangers.
Taking advantage of current favorable market conditions, KLM launched the facility at the beginning of July and concluded the transaction within the month. KLM took advantage of the significant oversubscription raised in the market to increase the facility to EUR 540 million, in addition to significantly scaling back the participating banks’ initial commitments.

The new 5-year facility, which can be used for general corporate purposes, further strengthens KLM’s liquidity position, giving KLM additional financial flexibility. It furthermore diversifies its sources of financing, in addition to existing structured finance transactions.
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