Industrial Union of Donbass (IUD) has secured an extension on its US$85mn steel pre-export finance facility arranged through a syndicate of international lenders led by SG Corporate & Investment Banking.

Syndicate banks are: Natexis Banques Populaires, GarantiBank International, RZB, West LB and Moscow Narodny Bank.

IUD Group is one of the largest industrial holdings in Ukraine. The core assets are AMK, DMK and Dunaferr (the Hungarian steel leader) – three fully integrated steel mills with a combined output of 8.6mn tons of crude steel in 2004 (including Dunaferr production of 1.6mn tons).

The transaction is a one-year extension of the first international syndicated loan for IUD arranged by SG CIB, which closed in January 2005. The extension was accompanied by a transformation of the facility from a revolving into a term loan with a reduction in the margin.

Proceeds will be used to finance working capital needs of IUD in connection with the production and export of steel products manufactured by its main production entities, AMK and DMK.