OREANDA-NEWS. September 15, 2010. X5 Retail Group N.V. (LSE ticker: "FIVE"), Russia's largest retailer in terms of sales, today announced that the Company has signed a new club loan with a total amount of USD 800 million to refinance the existing USD 1.1 billion syndicate facility, which was put in place in 2007 and was due to mature in December 2010. The rest of the syndicate facility will be refinanced through other existing facilities, including the forward start facility provided by Sberbank.

UniCredit acted as sole co-ordinator on behalf of X5.

The following 10 international banks participated as Mandated Lead Arrangers: Banca Intesa, ZAO Banque Societe Generale Vostok, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank A.G., Credit Agricole CIB ZAO, ING Bank N.V., OJSC Nordea Bank, ZAO Raiffeisenbank, Raiffeisen Zentralbank Цsterreich AG, ZAO UniCredit Bank, UniCredit Bank Austria AG, WestLB AG.

The new club loan is for three years, consists of USD-denominated and RUR-denominated facilities (each equivalent of USD 400 million) and will pay a margin of 2.50% over MosPrime/LIBOR, for both the RUR and USD lines. No collateral is provided for these facilities.

X5 Retail Group CFO Evgeny Kornilov commented:

“We are pleased to announce this new deal, which reflects the best conditions available on the market for the best players and fully meets X5’s requirements, including currency mix, margins and release of collateral.

The deal once again confirms our strong relationship with major international financial institutions and their continuous support for X5’s business. The dual currency structure of these facilities enables significant reduction of X5’s currency exposure in line with our risk policy.

The new club loan is fully in line with our objectives for a diversified debt portfolio and provides additional flexibility in managing the Company’s liquidity and debt maturities.”