Russian fertiliser manufacturer Eurochem has sealed a debut unsecured facility worth US$1.3bn.

The club deal is priced at three-month Libor plus 1.8% and has a tenor of five years, with a two-year grace period. It will be used to pay down the outstanding amount of the company’s 2011 pre-export finance facility, worth the same amount.

Mandated lead arrangers were Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML), Barclays, the Bank Of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Natixis, OJSC Nordea Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and RBS. BNP was facility and security agent, with Barclays acting as fixed-rate agent and BofAML co-ordinator and documentation agent.

Eurochem has a history of tapping the markets for large sums. In 2011, it secured what was then the largest post-crisis loan in the CEE region: a US$1.3bn PXF facility. The transaction was named as one of GTR’s deals of the year in 2011.

The company’s CFO Andrey Ilyin says: “We are pleased with this latest landmark long-term financing for the company. While on comparable terms to our 2011 PXF facility, which was secured, our ability to successfully replace it with unsecured debt allows us to further strengthen Eurochem’s credit profile.”