BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank have won a mandate from Russian steel firm Metalloinvest to arrange a US$1.2bn syndicated pre-export facility.

The facility will come with a five-year tenor and will be used by the mining and metal company for general corporate purposes, including trade finance, and to refinance an existing term loan facility which was signed in July 2008 for US$1.6bn.

The new facility will be priced at a margin set on the basis of a debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) ratio.

BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank are looking to launch syndication into the commercial market in the second half of February 2011.

In H1 of 2010, Metalloinvest generated around US$1.2bn on EBITDA with an overall EBITDA margin of 31%, as well as reducing its debt to US$4.1bn by the end of the year.