The general syndication phase of a $500m loan for Bahrain-based Arab Banking Corporation (ABC) has been launched.

The bookrunners and initial mandated lead arrangers (MLAs) on the transaction are the UK’s HSBC, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, France’s Natixis and Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

The loan will have a tenor of three years and will pay a margin of 120 basis points over the London interbank offered rate (Libor). The loan is being used for general funding purposes.

Several additional banks had already precommitted to the deal before it was launched into general syndication, which allows the wider banking market the chance to participate in the deal. The financial institutions are Germany’s Deutsche Bank; France’s Societe Generale, the UK’s Standard Chartered and the Royal Bank of Scotland.