Sibneft Gets a USD 150 Million Syndicated Loan

Russia's Sibneft oil company has been granted a USD 150 million syndicated loan by Raiffeisen Group and Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein Girozentrale. According to the oil company's press service, the loan is for a 3-year term with payment deferred for 9 months. The APR is as per LIBOR + 3.25%. The money will pay for the further development of the company and new asset purchases.

The granting of the loan followed the placing on the markets by Sibneft of USD 500 million worth of Eurobonds in November this year. The Eurobond (with a 10.75% coupon) will mature in January 2009 and is the Russian company's the longest-term international borrowing operation so far.

Sibneft was founded in 1995. Its statutory capital of USD 237,065 million is divided into 4,741,299,639 common shares. No official information as to the company's stockholders is available. However, unofficially, it is known that the controlling portion of the company's stock is owned by Roman Abramovich, Governor of Chukotka. Over the first 6 months of the year 2002, Sibneft's clear profits amounted to USD 475.5 million, which is a 25.7% decrease on the year.

Sibneft is considered the likeliest buyer of the state-owned portion of the Slavneft oil company, which is auctioned out today. Earlier, Sibneft purchased 10.83% of Slavneft from the government of Belarus for USD 206.25 million.

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