The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) as mandated lead arranger has been chosen by Russian Standard Bank, Moscow (RSB) to arrange a US$90mn term loan facility under an A/B loan structure.

The EBRD has been joined by BNP Paribas and RZB who have agreed to underwrite the entire amount of the B loan in equal proportions (the mandated B loan arrangers).

The facility consists of two tranches, a three-year A loan for US$30mn and an 18-month B loan amounting to US$60mn. The A loan will be provided by EBRD for its own account as a lender of record. The B loan will be fully underwritten by BNP Paribas and RZB. BNP Paribas, RZB and the other participants in the B loan will benefit from EBRD’s preferred creditor status, which applies to the facility.

The B loan pays an interest margin of 2.60 % per year over Libor.

The facility will be used to finance the borrower’s regional consumer loan portfolio.

Russian Standard Bank (www.bank.rs.ru) was founded in 1999. RSB is more than 90% owned by Russian Standard Group which has recently signed an agreement (subject to the approval of banking and anti-monopoly regulatory bodies) for Cetelem to acquire a 50% stake in the holding company. The purchase is expected to be completed by the end of 2004. Cetelem is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BNP Paribas and is number one in consumer credit in the euro zone.

Over the five years of RSB’s consumer lending programme, it has extended loans to more than 4.4mn people, the overall volume of which has exceeded US$1.8bn. As of November 1, 2004 RSB issued more than 1.7mn credit cards for a total amount of US$549mn. RSB employs over 4,500 staff.

RSB operates nationally and has implemented a consumer lending programme in more than 100 cities of Russia. As of October 1, 2004 RSB’s total assets increased by 135% from the beginning of the year and amounted to US$1.2bn, shareholders equity increased by 95% from the beginning of the year and totalled US$215mn. The net profit 2003 amounted to US$58mn after tax and US$105mn for the 9 months of 2004. As on October 1, 2004, the return on equity (ROE) was 87%, the return of assets (ROA) 17%.

RSB has a senior unsecured debt rating of B (outlook positive) from Standard & Poor’s Rating Service and a long-term foreign currency deposit rating of Ba3 (outlook positive) from Moody’s Investor’s Service Inc.