Eurasian Development Bank raises new USD 300 million Syndicated Loan

The USD 300 million debt facility for Eurasian Development Bank has successfully closed. The deal was originally launched at USD 125 million and subsequently increased to USD 300 million following oversubscription. The facility has a tenor of 2 years and margin of L+100bps. It will be used for general corporate purposes, including for its growing investment portfolio. A total of 27 banks participated in the deal with German and Chinese banks having a dominant presence among the investors. The Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers (IMLAs) are ING Wholesale Banking, Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and WestLB AG.

Dmitry Krasilnikov, a member of the EDB’s Executive Board, responsible for corporate finance, said «EDB is satisfied with the results of its third syndicated loan, especially taking into account that EDB had already raised USD 400 million in the market in December 2007. This shows that the bank lending market remains more or less a predictable market source for medium-term funds; short- and medium-term liabilities are now more economically justified for many borrowers».

This is the EDB’s third syndicated loan. The EDB, whose current credit ratings are BBB+/BBB+/A3, raised USD 150 million in December 2006 and USD 400 million in December 2007. This transaction was assigned a long-term debt rating of BBB+ by Standard & Poor’s. As in its previous transactions, in raising the loan the EDB relied on the support of its shareholders, the Governments of Russia and Kazakhstan, as well as on its high level of capitalization and solid project pipeline mainly focused on the areas of regional industrial infrastructure, transportation and energy.

Oliver Blount, Managing Director and Head of Origination for Central and Eastern European Syndicated Loans at ING said: «This is an outstanding result for EDB, which has been able to increase its tenor to 2 years from the previous 1 year and achieve a 160% oversubscription, despite current market conditions and resultant tightening of liquidity in the Euromarket».