OREANDA-NEWS. On July 25, 2007 URALSIB Leasing Company received the first USD 75 million tranche of a syndicated loan facility signed on July 24 with a group of foreign banks led by Credit Suisse, reported the press-centre of URALSIB Leasing Company.

This tranche is priced at LIBOR+3%. The second tranche will be provided in September 2007 and will be granted with a more favorable rate of LIBOR+2,75%. The five years loan facility amounts to USD 200 million.

"These funds are intended to finance capital-intensive projects in railway transport, real estate, construction and food industries, as well as to support SMB's transactions , - said Elena Guschina, General Director, URALSIB Leasing Company, - As part of our development strategy, this year we entered the international market of borrowings as a self-depended borrower. Our company is perceived as a transparent business. We fulfill all of our contractual obligations in time and maintain good relationship with our clients, vendors and lenders. We expect that we will be assigned a corporate governance rating and a credit rating of one of the international rating agencies by the end of 2007. This will further stimulate our long term relationships with top international financial institutions".

According to Dmitry Kornilov, CFO, URALSIB Leasing Company, "This agreement opens a large-scale international borrowing programme. The programme intends to raise funds of USD 500 million through CLN, syndicated and bilateral loans. The money raised will help to finance new deals of URALSIB Leasing Company. It is expected that their volume will reach USD 800 million by the end of 2007.