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Ural-Siberian Bank has mandated Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG and ZAO Raiffeisenbank <

  • xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Austria (mandated joint arrangers) to arrange the extension of a US$33mn syndicated term loan facility dated August 23, 2002 for a further period of 364 days.

    The transaction has been launched into syndication. The tenor is 364 days with bullet repayment. The facility pays an interest margin of 3% pa. Potential participants are invited to join the transaction at different commitment levels as lead arranger (US$5mn), arranger (US$4mn), co-arranger (US$3mn), lead manager (US$2mn) and manager (US$1mn) respectively. Participation fee levels remain undisclosed.

    The loan is trade-related and the proceeds will be used to support the borrower’s major clients” export and import activities.

    Existing lenders to the facility are: Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich mandated joint arranger; ZAO Raiffeisenbank Moscow mandated joint arranger; Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, American Express Bank, Commerzbank (Eurasija) SAO, ING arrangers; Bankgesellschaft Berlin co-arranger; Moscow Narodny Bank lead manager; Adria Bank, DZ Bank, China Ex-Im Bank managers.

    URALSIB was founded in 1993 by the government of the Republic of Bashkortostan (Russia) as a universal bank and is the leading bank in this region. Ural-Siberian Bank is 37.5% owned by the

    Republic of Bashkortostan. Supported by its oil sector the republic ranks second in the Urals region. In terms of manufacturing potential, the Republic of Bashkortostan is the largest industrial centre in Russia. The bank has never defaulted under its obligations and has well weathered the financial crisis of 1998.

    Due to the bank’s positive developments both the external ratings by S&P (B-/stable/C) and Fitch (B/B/D/4T/stable) have been upgraded during the past few months. UralSib is rated BBB (stable) by RusRating, an independent Russian rating agency, which is the highest rating among the 40 banks rated.

    In addition, UralSib has recently successfully placed shares in connection with its equity increase and has launched its debut Eurobonds in May and June 2003 respectively.

    The Republic of Bashkortostan has been rated long-term B+, outlook stable assigned by S&P. Due to its strong and solid income base, the republic belongs to the very few contributors to the federal budget of the Russian Federation. After Moscow and St Petersburg, Bashkortostan is considered as the third richest region of the Russian Federation.