Novolipetsk Steel (LSE: NLMK), a leading Russian steel company, is pleased to announced that the company has closed the order book for its third installment of the bond issue series BO-06.  The issue has a total value of RUR10 billion and a maturity period of 1092 days.

In the course of marketing, 92 investor orders were placed with an annual coupon rate ranging from 7.00% to 8.25%. The total value of demand from investors was RUR30.92 billion.

The bond’s annual coupon rate is set at 7.75%, a record low funding cost for such tools since early 2009. Due to the market situation, the price of placement, coupon rate and investors’ demand for the instrument NLMK has decided to accept 41 orders from the investors. Proceeds from the placement of bonds will be used to refinance the Company’s short-term debt, as well as for other corporate purposes.

Settlement and delivery of the bonds is expected to take place on March 09, 2010 at the MICEX (Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange).

This issue is lead-managed by Gazprombank and Troika Dialog.

Earlier, Standard&Poor’s, the international rating agency, assigned a BBB- priority unsecured debt rating to NLMK’s BO-06 ruble bonds.