OREANDA-NEWS. October 03, 2013. Sviaz-Bank (Vnesheconombank Group) has won the auction held by the FSUE Post of Russia for a contract to open a revolving credit line of 5 billion rubles to the postal service operator.

The signing of a bilateral loan agreement has become the biggest deal in recent years for the Bank to provide financial support to the Post of Russia.

The credit line has a drawdown period of five years.

“Sviaz-Bank and the Post of Russia have been strategic partners for many years, which is a sign of both partners’ interest in cooperation. We get our partner’s financial flows moving without a break, we are ready to assume the role of its guarantor, and we make loans to it to undertake major projects and meet its current needs for sustained growth,” said Sergey Volokhov, Vice Chairman of Sviaz-Bank’s Management Board.

“The Post of Russia is about to launch great investment projects to improve its international logistics, and we will use the loan funds, above all, to expand our international post handling centers,” said Dmitry Moskovsky, Deputy General Director of the FSUE Post of Russia, in his comments on the auction results.

The FSUE Post of Russia is the national postal service operator having 87 branches and almost 42,000 post offices offering postal services across the territory of the Russian Federation, including all towns and cities and rural communities. It has around 350,000 employees on its payroll, one of the biggest workforces in the country. Every year, Russia’s postal employees receive, process, and deliver over 1.5 billion letters, 48 million parcels, and 113 million money transfers.