On February 7, 2003, JSC “MMC Norilsk Nickel” and a group of western banks signed a loan facility agreement for USD 250 million. The syndicated loan, announced in December 2002, was arranged by Citibank, ING Bank and Soci?t? G?n?rale. Other syndicated lenders are BNP Paribas, CCF, Credit Lyonnais, Fortis, HSBC, KBC Bank, Moscow Narodny Bank, Natexis and WestLB. ZAO ING Bank (Eurasia) will be servicing settlements as the passport bank. The loan is a three-year pre-export finance facility. It is structured as a combination of a revolving credit line of USD 100 million and a term loan of USD 150 million. The pricing of the first and second tranches is 3% and 3,25% p.a. over LIBOR, respectively. The loan syndication was a success and the volume of senior participation proposals exceeded the initially agreed amount (at the request of Norilsk Nickel the total loan amount was kept at the original level). |