OREANDA-NEWS. On June 14, 2007 UC RUSAL, the world's largest producer of aluminium and alloys, has mandated ABN AMRO, Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Calyon, Citi, ING, Natixis and Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking to arrange and underwrite a USD 2 bln syndicated pre-export finance facility, reported the press-centre of  UC RUSAL.

The funds will be used to refinance a number of unsecured bridge facilities including the last bridge of USD 550 mln just disbursed from Bayerishe Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG, and will be applied for the refinancing of existing debt of UC RUSAL companies.

The bookrunners of the facility will be ABN AMRO, BNP Paribas, Calyon, Citi and Natixis. ABN AMRO will act as the facility agent, the documentation agent and the security agent, while Natixis will take the responsibilities of the off-take agent. Affiliates of ABN AMRO, BNP Paribas, ING and Societe Generale will share the roles of passport banks on shore in Russia.

The facility has a tenor of 7 years and will be amortised after a 2-year grace period. It is secured by commodity receivables on the basis of a buy-back off-take. The syndication is expected to commence shortly.

 “UC RUSAL is making its first entry into the syndication loan markets since the completion of the group’s merger. The deal is expected to attract much interest and appetite among the international banking community and prove to be a success”, said Oleg Mukhamedshin, Director, Capital Markets, UC RUSAL.

“Following on from the success of last years syndicated finance facilities for the merged companies, UC RUSAL has appointed a strong group of banks to underwrite and arrange this landmark transaction for them and the quality of this group is a reflection of the banks faith in the newly established UC RUSAL” said David Hague, Director, Structured Commodity Finance, ABN AMRO Bank N.V.