Kazakhstan
Halyk Bank is to return to market shortly with a $200m facility, although the mandate has yet to be signed. Banks have been in talks with the borrower for the past three months. The mandate group will be made up of five or six banks, and the loan will be fully syndicated.
The borrower is expected to pay a hefty premium compared to when it came to market last September. Then it had to cut its deal from $400m to $300m after a poor response in syndication.
On that facility, lenders were asked to commit to three and five year tranches paying margins of 40bp over Libor and 60bp respectively. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Calyon and Mizuho were the mandated lead arrangers.
Bankers have mixed feelings about Halyk’s return to market. Some officials who said they were not leading the transaction said they thought it would go well, and that Halyk was a good name to kick-start the Kazakhstan bank borrowing market.
Others disagreed, saying that it was still too soon for Kazakhstan financial institutions to return to the loan market, and that the deal would be poorly received unless it paid a big premium.
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Russia
Transcreditbank came back to the market on Monday with a $150m facility. BayernLB, Citigroup, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, LBBW, Landesbank Berlin and WestLB are bookrunners and initial mandated lead arrangers on the deal.
The transaction pays a margin of 100bp over Libor. Banks are being asked to join as senior lead arrangers, lead managers and managers with final hold commitments of $15m, $10m and up to $5m. Each of these tickets pays up-front fees of 120bp, 100bp and 80bp respectively.
Proceeds from the 18 month unsecured term loan will be used to finance the borrower’s foreign trade contracts.
Russian Railways — the state-owned railway operator — has a majority stake in Transcreditbank, and will be providing a letter of comfort.
The borrower is rated BB by Standard and Poor’s, and Ba1 by Moody’s.
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Société Générale is co-ordinating the increase of Brunswick Rail Leasing’s $385m loan from last September. BNP Paribas is also leading the deal, which will be an increase on the original facility by $50m.
The two banks arranged the borrower’s $385m facility from 2007. That five year deal, which paid a margin of 225bp over Libor, was oversubscribed during syndication and raised $500m in commitments, but was not increased.
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The loan for Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) will be increased to $1.6bn from $1.5bn, and signed next week.
BNP Paribas and Société Générale are bookrunners and initial mandated lead arrangers, and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Deutsche Bank, SMBC and UniCredit also joined as bookrunners and mandated lead arrangers during senior syndication. ABN Amro and Fortis Bank are mandated lead arrangers.
The facility was underwritten at $1bn, with the aim of raising $1.5bn during syndication. Banks close to the transaction said that commitments had exceeded the target amount.
Proceeds will refinance debt at the group’s recently acquired Maxi Steel subsidiary.
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Steel company Severstal has agreed to buy US steel producer Esmark, and the $900m bridge facility put in place to back the acquisition will be used. The bridge matures on September 30.
ABN Amro, BNP Paribas and Citigroup were mandated to provide the financing. The deal will not be syndicated further, however.
Bankers said it would either be taken out later this year by a bond, or by a syndicated loan.
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Commitments are due today (Friday) for the $100m loan for Troika Dialog, although bankers close to deal said that it was still not sure whether it would be closing yet.
The deal was launched on June 17 by mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners ING and Standard Bank. The borrower’s last venture was its debut facility signed in July last year. The one year $180m facility was increased from $150m paid $110m.
The new deal carries a margin of 175bp over Libor and also has a one year tenor.
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The $1bn loan for Gazprom-Neft is set to be signed today (Friday). The deal was oversubscribed in syndication and 17 banks joined the facility. There will be no increase, but banks’ allocations will be scaled back.
BBVA, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Barclays Capital, SMBC and WestLB are all mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners on the transaction.
The loan is split into three and five year tranches, which carry margins of 150bp over Libor and 175bp respectively. During syndication, banks were offered tickets of $100m, $75m, $50m and $25m for 125bp, 110bp, 10bp and 90bp.
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Latvia
The Eu70m loan for Aizkraukles banka is oversubscribed, and might be increased to Eu80m or Eu90m. Signing takes place next week in Riga.
The 360 day facility is being led by BayernLB, DZ Bank, HSH Nordbank and RZB, and pays a margin of 100bp over Libor.
During syndication, banks were offered mandated lead arranger tickets of Eu10m for 100bp, lead arranger tickets of Eu7.5m for 85bp, co-arranger tickets of Eu5m for 75bp and senior lead manager tickets of Eu2.5m for 65bp.
The borrower had also signed another Eu70m loan early in 2007. Bankers said this was one of the reasons why the second deal got off to a slow start. "It didn’t start with fireworks," said one official. "But it did well and it’s oversubscribed now."
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