OREANDA-NEWS. April 12, 2011. Raiffeisenbank together with Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Sberbank of Russia, Amsterdam Trade Bank N.V., UniCredit Bank and Joint Stock Company "Banque Societe Generale Vostok" acted as Mandated Lead Arrangers of Dual Currency Facility for JFC Group Co. Ltd. ("Facility"), coordinated by RBI Group (Raiffeisen Bank International AG and Raiffeisenbank Russia). The deal was signed on the 15th of March 2011. The Facility is a 3.5-year amortizing loan of USD 88,000,000 and RUB 1,500,000,000 with an Interest Rate of MosPrime/LIBOR plus a margin of 4.25-6.00% p.a. depending on the leverage ratio of the Group, reported the press-centre of Raiffeisenbank.

The proceeds of the Facility are to be used for general corporate purposes and the financing of the Group’s investment programme (including the development of the banana business in the Central and South America and new logistic centres in 15 Russian cities).

Raiffeisen Bank International AG is the Facility and Security Agent, as well as Documentation Agent, Raiffeisenbank is the Passport Bank. Westland Finance Advisory Ltd. acted as coordinator on behalf of JFC.

According to Vladimir Kehman, Chairman of the Board of Directors of JFC Group, this deal once again confirmed the confidence of the banking community in solid market position of the company and its stable financial standing. It should be particularly noted that Sberbank of Russia took part in this international transaction by fully funding the rouble tranche of the loan.

JFC Group is the largest Russian vertically integrated holding that manufactures, ships and distributes fruits. The Group was established in 1994 in St Petersburg.

JFC Group includes companies that produce, purchase, process, store, transport and sell fruit, owns banana plantations in Ecuador (ca 3,000 hectare), is in top-5 largest banana producers and in top-3 largest Ecuador exporters. In 2008 JFC began exporting bananas from Costa-Rica.

JFC Group is the largest fruit supplier for the Russian banana market with 36% share (15% share of the whole fruit market). JFC Group owns "Bonanza!" brand which is in top-50 largest brands in Russia in terms of turnover. JFC Group has enterprises, offices and terminals in Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Krasnodar, Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Kazan, and Nizhny Novgorod as well as in Cyprus, Ecuador and Costa Rica. The company has more than 3,600 employees in total.

The geography of JFC sales activities covers Europe, Middle East and CIS countries: Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Montenegro, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Tunisia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan.