HSH Nordbank has been mandated to arrange a one-year US$20mn syndicated pre-export finance facility for JSC Bank CenterCredit (BCC) in Kazakhstan. Proceeds will be on-lent to clients of BCC for pre-export finance purposes.

 

The transaction has been well received by the market with commitments received, subject to satisfactory documentation, of US$50mn. BCC has elected to accept the increase.

 

Signing is expected to take place by the end of February.
There will be a single bullet repayment. The margin is 2.20% over Libor per year.

 

JSC Bank Centercredit is the fourth largest commercial bank in Kazakhstan in terms of assets which as at September 30, 2004 totalled Kt141.0095bn and customer deposits which equalled Kt85.0623bn. Operating through a network of 19 branches BCC has a 6.3% share of the total assets of the Kazak banking system.

 

BCC is rated Ba1 by Moody’s Investor Services and B+ by Fitch Ratings Ltd.