OREANDA-NEWS. December 17, 2012. Sovcomflot (SCF Group) is pleased to announce that it has signed a new USD 700 million seven year credit facility with a consortium of eight leading international banks, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas S.A., Citibank, N.A., DVB Bank SE, ING Bank N.V., Nordea Bank Norge ASA and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ) acting as mandated lead arrangers and Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc. as arranger.

 The loan sets a benchmark for bank financing of the tanker industry in the current year as one of the largest transactions by volume, with one of the longest tenors.

 According to the terms of the agreement, the loan is to be used for refinancing of the Group’s existing bank debt, as well as for other corporate purposes.

 The loan is secured against crude oil tankers and oil products carriers from SCF fleet.

 Nikolai Kolesnikov, Senior Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer, said:

“We are grateful to our long-standing financial partners for their continued support of SCF’s business and growth plans and we welcome establishing relations with a number of new lenders to the Group. This new loan agreement clearly demonstrates the confidence of international lenders in the SCF Group despite the current challenges faced by the global financial and shipping markets.”

 “The deal covers SCF Group’s upcoming refinancing requirements and will allow to optimize the Group’s debt repayment profile and to strengthen its liquidity position.”

Notes to Editors

 In addition to asset-backed financing (secured against its vessels) from commercial banks and structured finance with the involvement of national financial institutions and export credit agencies Sovcomflot has been raising funds from the international debt capital markets.