Sberbank has improved the terms of Rusal’s US$4.58bn loan facility.

Under the amended terms, the debt will be extended to mature in 2016.

Furthermore, VEB’s original guarantee against the loan, agreed in 2008 and amounting to US$2.25bn, will be terminated.

The original loan was agreed in November 2010 and was used to repay a loan obtained in April 2008 from a syndicate of banks.

Oleg Mukhamedshin, Rusal director for equity and corporate development says: “The reached agreements strongly improve the corporate debt profile and enable us to cut debt service expenses. The improvement of the Sberbank loan is one of the stages of Rusal’s full debt refinancing which is expected to close by the end of September this year.”

The amendments have been approved by the credit committee of Sberbank and are subject to approval by the board of directors of Rusal.