Russia’s Federal Hydrogeneration Company (HydroOGK) has signed a Rb6.3bn senior long-term corporate loan arranged by the EBRD under an A-B loan structure. Hydro OGK owns and operates most hydro generation facilities in Russia.

 

 

 

The EBRD offered Rb4bn of the facility to commercial banks as an EBRD B loan. The B-loan is split into two tranches with an eight-year (Rb850mn) and 10-year (Rb3.15bn) maturity.

 
Standard Bank is co-arranger and the largest underwriter of an EBRD B-loan. It became the largest participant amongst the commercial banks in the facility.

 
Says Francois Gamet, director, energy finance at Standard Bank: “The debt package, one of the largest-ever rouble-denominated facilities, was heavily oversubscribed in the market by financial institutions, including foreign banks. The 10-year tranche ended up Rb2bn oversubscribed and we have no doubt we will witness more much needed long-term rouble-denominated debt in the market .”

 
Funds will finance the refurbishment of several units of the 10,000MW Volga-Kama hydro cascade and development of renewable sources of energy.

 
Repayment is in quarterly instalments with a three-year grace period.
The EBRD has kept Rb2.3bn as an EBRD A-loan on its own books. The A-loan has a tenor of 14 years. A three-year grace period is offered.

 

Repayment will be made out of the corporate cashflow of Hydro OGK by equal quarterly instalments. Both A and B loans are pari passu in all respects.

 
The project is to finance the upgrade/refurbishment of existing infrastructure owned by the company. This includes nine hydro power plants of the Volga-Kama cascades, many of which date from the middle of the last century and are in need of repair and upgrade.

 
Co-arrangers are Standard Bank Plc (Rb900mn), Bank of Austria (Rb800mn), and ING Bank (Eurasia) (Rb800mn).

 
Lead managers are Calyon Bank (Russia) (Rb325mn), and Fortis Bank (Rb325mn).

 
Lead manager for the eight-year tranche is Raiffeisenbank (Moscow) (Rb220mn).

 
Managers for the eight-year tranche are Citibank (Russia) Rb210mn, Credit Suisse (Rb210mn), and Societe Generale (Russia) (Rb210mn).