Industry & Construction Bank, St Petersburg, OJSC has mandated Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG (RZB) and ZAO Raiffeisenbank Moscow to raise a US$20mn syndicated term loan. This consists of two tranches. The first carries an initial maturity of 12 months and is available for extension for another period of 12 months at each lender’s discretion. Tranche 2 matures after 18 months and can be also extended for another 18 months at each lender’s discretion.

The facility will be used for trade finance transactions of the borrower’s customers and will be launched into senior syndication soon.

The borrower’s most prominent shareholder is Severstal with a stake of 9.81% which is coupled with a strategic partnership. Other big stakes are held by Invert Brok (15.39%), Petrovsky Trade House (11.63%) and Raduga Plus (15.4%).

ICB is a universal commercial bank, with a strong franchise in corporate finance and investment banking. The borrower is the largest regional bank in Russia, operating through its 51 offices located mainly in northwest and central Russia, whereas ICB is looking at establishing a nationwide franchise network.

In August 2002, FitchRatings awarded a rating of “B with stable outlook” to ICB reflecting its strong regional franchise, good asset quality and stable performance.

Based on ICB’s performance for the period of 1999-2002, Interfax Rating Agency assigned a A1 (rus) long-term credit rating and a RUS-1 short-term credit rating to it.