OREANDA-NEWS. July 23, 2012. Metinvest B.V., a parent company of the international vertically integrated steel and mining group of companies (jointly referred to as “Metinvest”), today announced that it has fully repaid a 5-year USD 1.5 billion Global Refinance Facility (“The Facility”) which was arranged by a syndicate of 16 banks in July 2007.

The Facility had an interest margin of 1.7% per annum over LIBOR and comprised two tranches: a USD 1.0 billion loan facility (Facility A) and a USD 0.5 billion blank revolving loan facility  (Facility B), which were primarily used to refinance Metinvest’s debt, fund its CAPEX programme and working capital needs, as well as for general corporate purposes.

Sergiy Novikov, Chief Financial Officer of Metinvest, commented: “The USD 1.5 billion syndicated finance facility was the record borrowed amount in the credit history of Metinvest, and the largest loan attracted by a private company in Ukraine in 2007. We managed to raise the Facility on favourable terms, which was acknowledgement of investors’ strong confidence in Metinvest’s business case and financial position. The annual instalments including interest expenses were accurately paid by Metinvest throughout the credit crisis of 2008-2009 and up to now. By repaying the Facility in full and on time, Metinvest reaffirmed its reputation as a sustainable business and a highly reliable borrower.”

Deutsche Bank AG (Amsterdam), ING Bank N.V., ABN Amro Bank N.V. and BNP Paribas (Suisse) SA acted as Lead Managers and Bookrunners of the syndicate.