Russian oil company Bashneft has signed a US$600mn pre-export finance (PXF) facility with a group of 14 international banks.

The three-year facility will be repaid in equal instalments after a one-year grace period. It is priced at Libor plus 2.35% and secured against petroleum export contracts for the duration of the facility.

The funds will be used by Bashneft for general corporate purposes.

BNP Paribas took the role of a co-ordinating bank and documentation agent, while Natixis was the facility agent and security agent. Barclays, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ING, Natixis, Nordea Bank, Société Générale, Rosbank and UniCredit were appointed as mandated lead arrangers.

“We are satisfied with the fact that leading international banks are interested in providing finance for Bashneft, as this reflects their high opinion on the company’s creditworthiness,” says Denis Stankevich, Bashneft’s vice-president for economics and finance and chief financial officer. “The funds that we have raised will enable us to continue diversifying the loan portfolio, ensure a well-balanced currency structure of debt and reduce borrowing costs.”

GTR announced back in September that Bashneft had been “sounding out banks every month since last year [2011] with touching faith that pricing might be coming down”.

The company closed its first syndicated pre-export finance facility in August 2011. The US$300mn deal saw BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and ING take on the role as mandated lead arrangers, pricing the deal at 200 basis points.