NOMOS-BANK to obtain a USD 135 million syndicated loan

NOMOS-BANK will obtain a syndicated facility totalling USD 135 mln. from a group of foreign banks. The book of creditors of the loan has just been closed.

Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG и Standard Bank Plc. act as arrangers of the facility. 24 banks-creditors will participate in the deal. The funds are provided to NOMOS-BANK without collateral for one year with a possibility of subsequent extension for another twelve months. The loan interest rate is LIBOR+1.55% per annum. The funds will be used for financing gold—mining enterprises that are customers of the Bank.

We consider this deal as very successful, noted Yuri Lekarev, Vice President of NOMOS-BANK. — Initially, we were planning to obtain USD 80 mln, but the deal was closed with USD 55 mln oversubscription. Given the current complicated liquidity situation in the international financial market, such result testifies to investors’ high confidence in NOMOS-BANK.

The new syndicated facility is a continuation of NOMOS-BANK’s successful practice in arranging pre-export financing of domestic gold—mining companies using foreign investors’ funds. Since 2001, NOMOS-BANK has obtained 13 syndicated loans for a total amount exceeding USD 1 milliard, of which six facilities were used to provide finance to gold—mining enterprises and companies.

The new syndicated loan extended by Western banks has once again proven NOMOS-BANK’s reputation as a reliable borrower in the international financial market. In 2007, the total amount of NOMOS-BANK’s medium- and long-term borrowing, including trade finance deals and syndicated loans, reached circa USD 1 milliard. Over the past years, the volume of foreign funding attracted by the Bank has been growing by 1.5 times annually.