SG Corporate & Investment Banking (SG CIB) has arranged a US$95mn 10-year financing partially guaranteed by Coface, the French export credit agency, for VneshTorgBank (VTB), Russia’s second largest bank.

The financing is for a 100,000 square metre real estate development in downtown Moscow, due to be built by the French exporter, Bouygues Btiment International, which has been involved since the start.

SG CIB acted as mandated lead arranger and agent on the deal. At US$95mn, this transaction is the largest French buyer credit made to a Russian bank since the 1998 crisis. Moreover, by the amount and tenor, this loan constitutes the biggest and the longest such transaction ever made by VTB. The investor is the special purpose vehicle Promindustria.

Promindustria benefits from the on-lending by VTB of the SG CIB loan to develop the construction of a building to host the central services of the Russian tax authorities and a business centre.

Tema, a Russian civil engineering company, acts as developer and Bouygues Batiment International will be the general contractor.