Kuwait’s Equate Petrochemical Company is expected to close a $5bn club loan in mid-2016.

Equate is refinancing a $6bn bridge loan secured in late 2015.

The same lenders, US-based JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, UK-based HSBC, and Kuwait Finance House and National Bank of Kuwait, will participate in the new loan.

The five banks are expected to cover the whole loan between them and not syndicate to other banks.

There will be term loan, revolving credit and standby tranches, with tenors between three and five years.

Equate could not be reached for comment.

Equate is 42.5 per cent owned by the US’ Dow Chemical and 42.5 per cent by Kuwait’s state-owned Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC). Dow is planning to reduce its stake this year.

The bridge loan was partly used to fund the acquisition of MEGlobal for $3.2bn from the US’ Dow Chemical.

MEGlobal is headquartered in Dubai and produces 1 million tonnes a year (t/d) of ethylene glycol in Canada.