A lender to the Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal (WICET), part-owned by Australia's biggest coal miner Glencore, has traded its debt exposure, as revealed by Street Talk on Thursday.
It's understood Lloyds Bank sold $148 million worth of WICET debt with the auction held earlier in the week.
The British bank offloaded the debt directly to four hedge funds via its internal sales desk with the price said to be pegged at 79¢.
The coal terminal is owned by eight miners, which have take-or-pay contracts with WICET.
It's the first crack in WICET's lending group, who are sitting on steep paper losses about five years after committing to the project.
The syndicate was put together by ANZ Banking Group, and there are multiples layers to the capital structure including a big piece of subordinated debt owned by IFM Investors.
It's been a drawn out process after Glencore last year pitched a refinancing deal to WICET with the help of Morgan Stanley and ANZ.
Now there is a price set, it will be interesting to see how long until the next piece of debt trades.
