Published: August 11, 2010
Ukrainian steel group receives funds from 14 banks.
Metinvest, a mining and steel group, has secured a US$700mn loan - the largest by a private Ukrainian company for three years.
The pre-export funds were provided by a syndicate of 14 banks and will be used to modernise its assets as well as for general corporate purposes.
The transaction was led by Deutsche Bank, which was the co-ordinating mandated lead arranger, facility agent, security trustee and bookrunner. The other mandated lead arrangers were Alfa-Bank, BNP Paribas (Suisse), Gazprombank, ING, Natixis, Sberbank and WestLB.
Kris Van Broekhoven, Deutsche Bank’s head of EMEA structured commodity trade finance, says that despite turbulence in global financial markets, commitments exceeded the initially announced loan amount by almost 300%.
“This is clear recognition of Metinvest’s sound performance throughout the economic downturn, despite strong volatility in the steel market, made possible by the company’s highly vertically integrated business model,” he adds.
The arrangers were the Austrian, German and French operations of VTB Bank while Credit Suisse, Erste and Raiffeisen were the senior lead managers.
Deutsche’s director of trade finance distribution, Boris Jaquet, described this as a “landmark transaction”.
“The facility’s significant oversubscription and the record number of lenders joining the transaction is another clear testimony that even in challenging market conditions bank liquidity is still widely available for top-notch borrowers and sound financing structures.”
Metinvest produces raw materials for steelmakers in Europe and Asia. Its majority shareholder is SCM, which holds a 75% stake in the business, with Smart-Holding owning the balance.