Ukrainian metals buyer credit signed

BayernLB (Bayerishe Landesbank) and SG Corporate & Investment Banking (SG CIB) have signed two structured buyer credits amounting to €44.380mn with a joint venture between Industrial Union of Donbass (IUD) and Duferco, for a slab caster and ladle furnace facility on the Alchevsk site in Ukraine.

BayernLB as agent, and SG CIB as co-agent, acted as mandated lead arrangers in this transaction. OeKB, the Austrian export credit agency and Kuke, the Polish export credit agency provided both banks with comprehensive cover with the whole transaction being refinanced by OeKB.

This transaction, based on a complex security package, is the biggest export credit carried out by a Ukrainian corporate since the 1998 crisis.

The equipment will be supplied by Voest-Alpine Industrieanlagenbau (VAI), an Austrian company, and by its affiliate in Poland.

VAI, a company of the VA Technology AG, is one of the world’s leading engineering and plant-building companies for the iron, steel and aluminium industries with a multinational company structure and special focus on technology, automation and services.

IUD is the third largest steelmaker in Ukraine.

Duferco is the largest privately owned steel off-taker in the world.