TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The world’s largest precious metals streaming firm Silver Wheaton has secured a $1-billion nonrevolving term (NRT) loan to repay certain debts and to position the company for continued growth.

The NRT loan has a three-year term, which was extendable by another year if such a request garnered the unanimous consent of the syndicate of lenders.

Silver Wheaton on Wednesday said it had fully drawn $1-billion under the NRT loan to repay the remaining balance of $560-million on its bridge facility and $440-million outstanding under its revolving facility.

After repaying these debts, the company had total debt of $1.06-billion, which comprised $1-billion outstanding on the NRT loan and $60-million outstanding under the revolving facility, due to mature in February 2018. The bridge facility was also terminated after being repaid in full.

"Given Silver Wheaton's strong cash flows and relatively fixed costs, we are very comfortable with our current balance sheet and our ability to swiftly repay the outstanding debt. The company received strong support from the syndicate of banks that participated in this new term loan.

“Following the closing of this loan, there is $940-million of credit available under the revolving facility, which, together with strong operating cash flows, positions the company well for continued growth,” president and CEO Randy Smallwood said.

At the Silver Wheaton’s discretion, amounts outstanding under the NRT loan would incur interest at either the London interbank offered rate, including an applicable margin ranging from 120 to 220 basis points, or, the Bank of Nova Scotia's US base rate, including an applicable margin ranging from 20 to 120 basis points, with the applicable margin being determined by the Silver Wheaton’s leverage ratio.

Scotiabank and BMO Capital Markets acted as co-lead arrangers and joint book-runners. The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, HSBC Bank Canada, Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto Dominion Bank acted as co-documentation agents, while the Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Export Development Canada acted as senior managers, and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, the National Bank of Canada, and Mizuho Corporate Bank acted as lenders.

Silver Wheaton’s net earnings for the three months ended March 31 declined by 9% to $133.4-million, or $0.38 a share, compared with $147.2-million, or $0.42 a share, for the same period in 2012. Higher costs and the low silver price impacted on the company’s first-quarter earnings.

This year, Silver Wheaton expected to produce 33.5-million silver-equivalent ounces.

The firm, which provided miners with cash up front to finance mine construction in exchange for the right to buy future precious-metals production at a set price, had pushed up its attributable proven and probable reserves by more than 38% in 2012, to a record of 1.12-billion.

Its attributable reserves comprised 851.4-million ounces of silver and 4.96-million ounces of gold.