RBS joins Norilsk Nickel syndication

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has joined the syndication for the three-year pre-export loan for Russian miner Norilsk Nickel, increasing the facility amount to US$1.5bn from the previous total of US$1.3bn.

The facility proceeds will be used to partially refinance a US$2.5bn, one-year unsecured line arranged by BNP Paribas and Société Générale in 2007, part of a US$6bn loan obtained by Norilsk last year to back its acquisition of Canadian nickel mining company, LionOre Mining International.

The arrival of RBS is not an unexpected development, with the bank supporting the LionOre transaction with a sizeable ticket at senior arranger level and its commitment to the present syndication only affected by issues of timing and credit committee deliberations.

RBS will join the deal in the same position as the seven existing arranging banks; Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Calyon, ING, Société Générale. SMBC, Unicredit HVB and WestLB.

The US$1.5bn loan will be divided into three tranches: a US$650mn secured pre-export tranche with a margin of 85 basis points, a secured US$500mn revolving credit tranche paying 85bp and an unsecured US$150mn tranche that will pay a margin of 100bp.

Syndication is expected to continue until early June.