Loans for Acquiring Shares of Edgen Group Inc. in U.S.
Supporting Overseas M&A of Japanese Company

• Region: North America
• Manufacturing and Services
• Overseas Investment Loans

1. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC; Governor: Hiroshi Watanabe) signed recently four loan agreements^*1  with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., Mizuho Bank, Ltd. (collectively Japanese private financial institutions) and Sumitomo Corporation of America (SCOA), a U.S. subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation (Sumitomo), to finance part of the funds required for acquiring shares of Edgen Group Inc. (Edgen) in the United States by Sumitomo.
    
2. In the acquisition of Edgen by Sumitomo, JBIC provides finance to SCOA directly and also through Japanese private financial institutions based on general agreements for setting credit lines for the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) that JBIC has concluded with institutions.
    
3. Through this acquisition, Sumitomo will obtain the marketing channel of OCTG, line pipe and specialty pipe and tube which Edgen holds, and plans to meet higher customer needs, by further expanding its OCTG distributor network and strengthening the global procurement and marketing channel which Sumitomo Group has built through the broadening its scope of service further into mid- and down-stream value chain in the energy industry such as line pipe and specialty pipe and tube.    
    
4. These loans are intended to support overseas deployment of existing and new business by supplying necessary long-term foreign currency funds flexibly for overseas M&A by a Japanese company, in collaboration with Japanese private financial institutions, and thereby, this contributes to the maintenance and improvement of the international competitiveness of Japanese industries.
    
5. As Japan's policy-based financial institution, JBIC will continue to support overseas M&A activities of Japanese companies in cooperation with private financial institutions.

Note

1. *1 Although JBIC had already concluded the loan agreements with each private financial institution on January 30, 2014, the press release was issued today after the conclusion of the loan agreement with SCOA on January 31, 2014.