Metalloinvest has closed the largest pre-export finance (PXF) syndication in Russia’s metal and mining industry history involving participation from 21 banks.

BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank were initial mandated lead arrangers for the massively oversubscribed US$3.1bn debt facility, which was originally set for US$1.2bn.

Joining the deal as mandated lead arrangers was the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Credit Suisse, ING, Natixis, Nordea, Société Générale, RBS, Unicredit and WestLB.

SMBC, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Sberbank, Intessa Sanpaolo, Standard Bank, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Bank of China all also joined as arrangers.

The deal is priced at 225 basis points over Libor based on the 2010 financial year audited financial results; this marks the company’s return to a pre-crisis level cost of borrowing.

The loan is split into five-year and seven-year tranches.

It has been a while since we have been able to get our heads out of club land and we are very satisfied with the financial syndication results.”

“The success of the transaction reflects the main strengths of the group and the superior quality of its assets which both led to the group’s good financial results and cash flow during the economic crisis,” says Pavel Mitrofanov, deputy chief executive officer and chief financial officer of Metalloinvest.

The oversubscribed transaction could be a strong signal that syndicated deals are being welcomed again by the international market, as Helen Guillemot, head of loan syndication and trading for CIS, Eastern Europe and Turkey at BNP Paribas notes: “As syndicator, this facility has been a particularly important event in the loan market, being a true syndication run by the two initial mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners who drove forward all distribution aspects.”

“It has been a while since we have been able to get our heads out of club land and we are very satisfied with the financial syndication results and to see a loan so warmly embraced by the syndications market.”