Bankers Trust leads in loan.

Bankers Trust Leads in Loan

An international bank group led by Bankers Trust New York Corp. funded a loan Tuesday for more than $100 million to finance modernization of Shell Oil Co.'s Houston headquarters.

Bankers Trust acted as debt placement agent and lead lender. The group also includes Toyo Trust Co., Barclays Bank, Banque Paribas and Deutsche Bank.

The refinancing of a much smaller loan was provided for One Shell Plaza, a 1971 building with about 1.2 million square feet of space. The building is 100% leased with Shell and the law firm Baker & Botts occupying more than 90% of the space.

Gerald D. Hines is owner and manager of the building.

The loan is "the perfect archetype" of the financing that Bankers Trust aims to provide, one bank official said. "We lend our name to a very high-quality project and build a bank group around it."

It remains to be seen whether the banks will sell portion of the five-year loan to other lenders, but some of the main banks are expected to keep their positions.

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