HSH Nordbank, as mandated lead arranger, has been mandated to arrange a one-year US$20mn syndicated pre-export finance facility for JSC Bank CenterCredit (BCC). The transaction, which has been arranged on a fully underwritten basis will be launched into general syndication shortly. The proceeds of the loan will be on lent to clients of BCC for pre-export finance.

The margin is 2.2% over Libor.

JSC Bank Centercredit is the fourth largest commercial bank in Kazakhstan in terms of assets which as at September 30, 2004 totalled KZT141bn and customer deposits which equalled KZT85bn. Operating through a network of 19 branches BCC has a 6.3% share of the total assets of the Kazakh banking system.

BCC is rated Ba1 by Moody’s Investor Services and B+ by Fitch Ratings.