Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS, has signed a facility agreement to refinance a portion of its US$1.33bn syndicated loan facility.
Having concluded negotiations with a consortium of banks, MTS signed the facility agreement to refinance the first tranche of its existing US$1.33bn syndicated loan facility in the amount of US$630mn. The syndicated loan facility had been scheduled to mature in May 2009.
The company raised US$295mn for facility A and €214.5mn for facility B, to be followed by an additional tranche in the coming weeks as part of the new facility.
The facility will mature in 2012 and will have an interest rate of Libor plus 6.5%.
The mandated lead arrangers are Absolut Bank, Bank of China, Bank of America, Banque Societe Generale Vostok, Bayerische Landesbank, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Export Development Canada, HSBC Bank, ING Bank, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking, The Royal Bank of Scotland, WestLB and UniCredit Bank.
Credit Suisse and ING acted as coordinating banks for the refinancing and ING is acting as the facility agent.
"This facility provides MTS with additional financial flexibility to continue our investment programmes and meet our future obligations," says Aleksey Kaurov, director of corporate finance at MTS.
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