OREANDA-NEWS. April 11, 2011. Gazprom Neft has signed an agreement to reduce the interest rate from Libor +2.1% to Libor +1.6% per annum on its USD 1.5 billion syndicated loan that it secured in 2010.

The agreement to provide a five-year USD 1.5 billion secured loan was concluded on 30 June 2010. The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Natixis SA and Societe Generale acted as initial mandated lead arrangers and loan book runners.

"Effective management of financial resources and optimising the debt portfolio are important tasks for the company. In 2010 the share of short-term loans in Gazprom Neft's overall portfolio fell from 34% to 25.5%, the average weighted interest rate for the debt portfolio fell from 5.11% to 3.96%, and the average weighted loan term increased from 1.74 to 2.1 years. We will continue to further optimise our debt load by both seeking to reduce loan rates and by increasing the duration for raising funds", commented Vadim Yakovlev, First Deputy CEO and CFO of Gazprom Neft.