OREANDA-NEWS. August 11, 2011. OJSC Nordea Bank participated in Pre-Export Finance term loan facility on a club basis in the amount of 1,300,000,000 mUSD. The loan facility issued by Nordea Bank amounts to 100 mUSD. There were 14 banks-participants in this club deal, reported the press-centre of Nordea Bank

The Facility is structured as a 5-year pre-export finance facility with a 2-year grace period for repayment of the principal. It is the largest bank debt financing in the Chemicals sector in the CEE since 2009.

The Facility is priced at LIBOR + 1.8% per annum. EuroChem is planning to use approximately one third of the proceeds of the Facility to refinance the amount outstanding under EuroChem’s 2008 1.5 bUSD syndicated PXF facility, while the remainder will be used for general corporate purposes, including capital expenditure and potential M&A activity.

Michael Polyakov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of OJSC Nordea Bank stated, ”The Bank’s participation in the club facility is an important milestone that continues strategic partnership with EuroChem. Development of cooperation in lending to agrochemical companies is one of the priority targets for Nordea Bank’s corporate business, because this industry shows high growth rates and is very promising in the terms of further development”.

Andrey Ilyin, EuroChem’s CFO commented, “We are very pleased to have raised yet another landmark long-term financing for the Company. In spite of today’s volatile environment, we secured better terms compared to EuroChem’s previous PXF facility. This transaction extends the average maturity profile of our debt, and its favorable repayment structure releases operating cash flow for strategic investments”.

Alexander Gavrilov, Head of Corporate Finance at EuroChem added: “This Facility could be another deal of the year for us. We are delighted with the high level of support we received from our traditional partners, while at the same time broadening our group of relationship banks to form this pool of first class international banks”.

EuroChem is listed among Top-10 of the global leaders in agrochemical industry by production capacities. The Company primarily produces nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers, as well as iron ore concentrate. The Group is vertically integrated with activities spanning from mining to production, logistics and distribution. EuroChem holds licenses to develop potash reserves in Russia which entitle it to an estimated fifth-largest volume of potash reserves globally.

Nordea Group is a leading Nordic financial institution providing a large range of products, services and solutions in banking, assets management and insurance. The Group is included into Top-20 of the banks in Western Europe and into Top-40 of the global credit institutions, high reliability ratings have been assigned to it by the international agencies.