Caterpillar gets $5.61 billion of revolving loans

Caterpillar Inc., the world's biggest maker of construction and mining equipment, got $5.61 billion in revolving credit lines to backstop the company's commercial-paper program.

Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. arranged a $3.52 billion revolver maturing in 364 days and a four-year credit line for $2.09 billion, Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar said today in a regulatory filing.

Interest rates and commitment fees to banks will be tied to Caterpillar's credit ratings and credit default swap mid-rate spreads, agreements attached to the regulatory filing show.

Both revolvers will have interest rates 0.5 percentage point to 2.25 percentage points more than the London interbank offered rate. Libor is the rate banks charge to lend to each other. The company also may use different lending benchmarks.

Caterpillar's senior unsecured debt is rated A2 by Moody's Investors Service and A by Standard & Poor's, which would set a 0.75 percentage point to 1.75 percentage point margin over Libor, the agreements show.

The commitment fee for the 364-day credit line ranges from 0.05 percent to 0.15 percent for while the revolver expiring Sept. 15, 2014, has a range of 0.1 percent to 0.25 percent.

In a revolving credit facility, money can be borrowed again once it's repaid. The short-term revolver will use a one-year CDS mid-swap rate and the four-year credit line will use a four- year CDS mid-swap rate, according to the agreements.