Russia's Zenit Bank has closed a US$218mn syndicated term loan facility via arranging banks BayernLB, Commerzbank, Erste Bank, Landesbank Berlin and Raiffeisen Zentralbank.
 
The loan proceeds will be used to finance the foreign trade operations of the bank's clients.

In a reflection of market conditions, the deal pays a margin of 145 basis points over LIBOR, compared with 100bp for Zenit's previous US$170mn loan signed in May 2007. The tenor of the bullet repayment loan is one year.

The facility was initially launched on 24 April 2008 at US$150m and the amount increased to US$218m due to a positive market response and an oversubscription of almost 50%.

The banks joining the transaction in syndication include FBN Bank at lead arranger level, Demir-Halk Bank at arranger, Bred Banque Populaire and Landesbank Baden-Wüttemberg (London Branch) as co-arrangers, Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank, GarantiBank International, OTP Bank and  VTB Bank (Deutschland) as lead managers and AKA Bank, American Express Bank, UniCredit Group, Banque BIA, Citi, JP Morgan and Yapi Kredi Bank as managers.

Zenit Bank, in which oil producer Tatneft holds a 24.56% stake, is currently rated B í/Stable by Moody's and B/Positive by Fitch.