Mandated lead arranger and bookrunner Deutsche Bank has signed a US$50mn syndicated term loan facility for Astana Finance, the borrower’s debut facility raised in the syndicated loan market.
The deal proved to be popular, and was oversubscribed with Astana opting to increase the facility from US$40mn to US$50mn. It carries a tenor of one year, and pays a margin of 1.20% per year.

Additional MLAs joining during syndication are Barclays Capital, BayernLB and First Commercial Bank, Offshore Banking Branch. A further six banks participated in the deal.

This transaction follows the borrower’s earlier Eurobond transaction closed under the global medium-term note programme (GMTN) programme via co-arrangers Deutsche Bank and Citigroup in June.
Astana Finance is considered one of the leading non-bank financial institutions in Kazakhstan, and is rated as Ba1 (outlook stable) by Moody’s and BB+ (outlook stable) by Fitch.

The Municipality of Astana has a blocking interest in Astana Finance, meaning a shareholding of not less than 25% plus 1 share. It also owns a 25.5% of Astana Finance equity.