OREANDA-NEWS. On July 26, 2007 X5 Retail Group N.V. (LSE ticker: "FIVE"), Russia's largest retailer in terms of sales, announced that the syndication of its latest loan facility has been successfully closed with a further six financial institutions joining the transaction as Mandated Lead Arrangers, reported the press-centre of X5 Retail Group N.V.

The facility, which was announced on June 27, is for $1 billion with a final maturity of one year. The initial mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners of the facility are Goldman Sachs International and Citigroup Global Markets Limited, each participating in the facility post syndication.

The facility was oversubscribed in senior syndication and the general syndication was cancelled. The loan will pay a margin of 0,75% over LIBOR, significantly lower than previous facilities. The new loan will be used entirely to refinance existing debt.

The new participants in the facility are:
ABN Amro N.V.
BNP Paribas
Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft
ING
Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG
WestLB AG

Vitaliy Podolskiy, X5 Retail Group CFO commented: "We are delighted that we have attracted the support of another six major institutions for our loan facility. This participation reflects the strong relationships of X5 with the international financial community and sets a new benchmark for the Russian retailing sector".