OREANDA-NEWS. On September 17, 2008 Rosneft completed the repayment of the third and final tranche (USD 2.3 bn.) of the USD 22 bn. short term acquisition financing drawn in early 2007, reported the press-centre of Rosneft.

The USD 22 bn. bridge consisted of two loans, one for USD 13 bn. and the other for USD 9 bn., both of which were arranged by ABN AMRO, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Calyon, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, J. P. Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley in March 2007. Both the size and the terms of the loans were unprecedented for a borrower on the Russian market.

Rosneft President Sergey Bogdanchikov commented: “Successful refinancing and repayment of our USD 22 bn. bridge loan over the past 18 months despite unprecedented turmoil in global credit markets is clear testament to Rosneft’s strong financial position and reputation amongst major international lenders.

We remain committed to our focus on improving efficiency and maintaining sound financial discipline, including reducing and maintaining our leverage (Net Debt/EBITDA) to approximately 1x. As many have already noted following the recent publication of our US GAAP results for the second quarter, our Net Debt/EBITDA ratio as of June 30, 2008 has already improved to this level”.