Standard Bank Plc and ZAO Standard Bank (SBG) have been mandated by the International Bank of St Petersburg, Russia (IBSP) to act as the mandated lead arranger for a US$15mn syndicated trade-related term loan facility.

 

This will be IBSP’s second visit to the syndicated loan market.

 

The facility will finance trade-related transactions of the borrower’s strategic clients.

 

There will be a bullet repayment 364 days from the date of signing.

 

The margin is 2.85 % per year.

 

At the end of 2006 IBSP ranked seventh and 62nd by total assets in St Petersburg and Russia, respectively. In 2004 the bank met the requirements of Central Bank of Russia and was accepted into the Deposit Insurance System.

 

The head office is located in St Petersburg, with a full service branch in Moscow.

 

IBSP was assigned a B- long-term rating by Fitch in October 2005 (approved in 2006) and a CCC+ was assigned by Standard & Poor’s in September 2005. This is in line with the ratings of well positioned medium-sized Russian Banks. Fitch noted the improving commercial franchise of the Bank backed by the fast-growing Russian economy as well as consistent financial performance, relatively good asset quality and adequate liquidity.