The facility has a maturity of five years, will be used for general corporate purposes, and was arranged by the company itself. It refinances a $6.5 billion loan maturing in 2012 with 28 banks.
The company said refinancing allows it take advantage of favorable conditions in the global bank loan market and reduced financial costs.
The banks are: Bank of America, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Danske Bank, Handelsbanken, HSBC, JP Morgan, Nordea and Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Commerzbank, Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, DnB NOR, ING Bank, Santander, SEB, Societe Generale and Standard Chartered.
