Norilsk Nickel signs credit agreement worth $250m

Norilsk Nickel and a group of Western banks have signed a credit agreement totaling $250m, the company's press service reported. The syndicated credit, which was announced last December, was organized by Citibank, ING Bank and Sociхtх Gхnхrale. Creditors are BNP Paribas, CCF, Credit Lyonnais, Fortis, HSBC, KBC Bank, Moscow Narodny Bank, Natexis and WestLB.

The credit has been allocated for a three-year period. The first tranche of the credit is $100m with a 3 percent annual interest rate above LIBOR and the second tranche is $150m with a 3.25 percent interest rate above LIBOR.

The company pointed out that the syndication had been carried out successfully and the amount of bank applications for participation had significantly exceeded the initially planned volume of the credit. However, the planned volume was retained by proportionally decreasing the banks' shares.

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