OREANDA-NEWS. Uralkali (LSE: URKA), one of the world’s largest potash producers, has signed a loan agreement in the amount of USD 1 billion with 14 banks.

The Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners of the pre-export finance facility are Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Natixis, Societe Generale acting via Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking and Rosbank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Limited and UniCredit.

OJSC Nordea Bank, The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Deutsche Bank AG, ICBC (London) plc, ING Bank N.V., Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd., ZAO Raiffeisenbank and Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.a. also participated in the deal.

A self-arranged club deal was initiated by the end of 2012 gathering commitments from banks for the total amount of USD 1.4 billion. Due to high liquidity position Uralkali decided to scale back the Facility amount down to USD 1 billion.

Banc of America Securities Limited acted as Initial Mandated Lead Arranger, Bookrunner and Coordination and Documentation Agent, Merrill Lynch International acted as Hedging Agent while BNP Paribas (Suisse) SA is acting as Facility Agent and Security Agent.

The interest rate is LIBOR plus 215 bps margin with the loan maturity of 5 years. The loan facility will be used for the general corporate purposes and refinancing of existing loans of Uralkali.

Viktor Belyakov, Uralkali CFO, commented

“The new self-arranged Credit Facility demonstrates strong commitment from leading international banks to provide financing support to the Company. Uralkali is continuing to develop relationship with top-tier banks and its active presence on the international loan market. The funds raised will enable us to decrease our financing costs and to increase the average tenor of our loan portfolio”.