Sberbank agrees deals with Mizuho
Following on from the signing of its US$1.2bn syndicated facility closed in early November, Russia’s Mizuho Corporate Bankhas returned to the market to secure two smaller bilateral transactions with Mizuho Corporate Bank.
The bank has closed a seven-year US$100mn loan facility and a three-year US$100mn loan with Mizuho Corporate Bank. The longer bilateral loan will be used for general purpose financing while the shorter facility is designed to be on-lent to Japanese-related corporate clients of Sberbank.
The closing of the transactions follows a cooperation agreement signed with Mizuho Corporate Bank and Mizuho’s Russian banking arm in September.
“We have a good track record of business relations with Mizuho Corporate Bank, but this seven-year loan facility provided at a time of high market volatility brings our cooperation to a new level,” comments Andrey Donskikh, deputy chairman of the board of Sberbank.
“Conclusion of such outstanding transactions under recently signed cooperation agreement confirms the commitment of our reliable counterparty to the Russian market”.
Sberbank has been very active borrower in recent months, closing a number of bilateral transactions and pre-export finance deals with banks such as WestLB, Citi and JP Morgan.
However it is its US$1.2bn term loan facility closed in November that the bank claims set new benchmarks in terms of what Sberbank can secure from the international market.
The transaction pays 150 basis points over Libor, which according to the bank is the same pricing as the large syndicated loan it closed in December 2010.
Mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners on the US$1.2bn transaction are The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Barclays Capital, Citi, HSBC Bank, ING Commercial Banking and JP Morgan.
Bank of America Securities and SMBC Europe joined as mandated lead arrangers, while Goldman Sachs International joined as a lead arranger. Barclays Capital was the co-ordinator and facility agent.
The facility has a tenor of three years with a bullet repayment. According to the bank the facility was oversubscribed and commitments had to be scaled back.
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