RusEnergy

19 February 2008 - Upstream OnLine - Russian oil giant Rosneft has appointed 13 banks to lead a $2.6 billion five-year loan secured on oil export revenue with the door open for more lenders to join as mandated lead arrangers which would increase the facility amount. The loan will partly refinance $11.75 billion of bridge loans extended last year to finance Rosneft's deal to buy assets belonging to bankrupt oil producer Yukos. So far, 13 mandated lead arrangers have committed $200 million each to the deal. They are ABN Amro, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Barclays, Bayern, BBVA, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, ING, JP Morgan, Nordea, Societe Generale, SMBC and West, a Reuters report said. Once the mandated lead arranger group has been finalised, the deal will be offered to a wider group of banks in syndication, expected to be from next week. Rosneft faces a rise in borrowing costs on the refinancing due to deteriorating loan market conditions as it seeks to refinance just under half of a $24.5 billion credit extended by eight banks in February last year. Around $5 billion of the credit has to be refinanced by mid-March and $6.5 billion matures in September.