The loan is for six months, extendable to a year, and is priced at 20 basis points over the London interbank offered rate (libor). It was increased from the its original plan to raise $600m.

CBQ announced early this year that it was in discussions with UAB to acquire the stake. Once the acquisition is complete, CBQ is expected to install its own management team, as it did when it bought 35 per cent stake of National Bank of Oman. The latter now has four representatives of CBQ on its 11-strong board.

ABN Amro, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, DBS Bank, JP Morgan, and Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich acted as arrangers on the financing.