OREANDA-NEWS. December 29, 2012. The URALCHEM Group, a leading Russian producer of mineral fertilizers, has refinanced part of its loan portfolio by procuring a 5-year syndicated loan. As part of the early repayment of a number of previously procured loans, all secured assets have been released, loan payments have been diversified through an optimal currency basket, and the average time frame for repayment of the loan portfolio has been significantly increased.

Sberbank CIB1 and Sberbank (Switzerland) AG, a subsidiary company of OJSC “Sberbank of Russia,” were the Mandated Lead Arrangers. The syndicated loan was received on December 21 from the syndicate of international and Russian banks.

OJSC “Sberbank of Russia” has been one of the URALCHEM Group’s key creditors and banking partners since 2007. In recent years, OJSC “Sberbank of Russia” has financed the acquisition of the Group’s main assets and provided services for a wide range of banking products.

“We appreciate the support that the Sberbank Group has offered URALCHEM Group. We have a long-term partnership and Sberbank CIB and Sberbank (Switzerland) AG’s participation in this deal again confirms our intentions to work together in the future,” commented Dmitry Konyaev, CEO of URALCHEM, OJSC.

“We highly value our cooperation with, and are pleased to be a key bank for, the URALCHEM Group, which has excellent potential for growth. Our participation in this syndicate speaks to the broadening of our collaboration: we now offer the Group our services not just in Russia but also abroad thanks to the involvement of our subsidiary banks, in particular Sberbank (Switzerland) AG. We look forward to the continuation of our mutually-beneficial collaboration and are happy to offer the Group new products, including investment banking services,” commented Kirill Polishkin, Deputy Director of the Department of Corporate Clients of Sberbank CIB.