Moscow — On 20th of February 2020 PJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel signed an agreement to amend the terms and conditions of the existing syndicated loan facility signed in December 2017 with a group of international banks in the amount of USD 2,500 million, increasing the funding limit to USD 4,150 million, while reducing the interest rate and significantly increasing the loan maturity.

Taking advantage of the prevailing favorable market conditions, the company achieved advantageous terms for its syndicated loan, which generated significant demand from a number of American, European and Asian banks.

The funds will be used by Nornickel during the availability period until the 4th quarter of 2020 to refinance the company’s current debt, as well as to finance capital expenditure and for general corporate purposes.

Sergey Malyshev, a Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Nornickel commented: “The new syndicated facility will allow to continue further optimization of the company’s debt portfolio by eliminating refinancing risk and lowering the average cost of funds. One of the advantages of this loan is a structure consisting of several tranches, which allows refinancing of the existing USD 2.5 billion of debt and provides a guaranteed source of competitive funding to repay Norilsk Nickel’s debt, including the issue of Eurobonds due in October 2020 and the financing of the company’s investment program.

This transaction is notable due to a number of parameters achieved by the company: Libor 1M + 1.40% per annum is a record low interest rate for Russian corporates in the international syndicated loan market, a record size of the deal and tenor”.

Maarten Koning, a Global Head Structured Commodities Finance of ING Bank N.V., which acted as the Coordinator and Documentation Agent, added: “This transaction is exceptional by size for unsecured syndicated loans in the Metals & Mining sector in Russia and the CIS, and is also one of the leading facilities in terms of total tenor and the diversification of participating lenders’ group”.

Agricultural Bank of China (Moscow) Limited, Bank of China Limited Macau branch, Bank of China Limited Hungarian Branch, China Construction Bank Corporation, Seoul Branch, China Construction Bank (Russia) limited, AO Citibank, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, filiale Luxemburg, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, London Branch, Credit Suisse AG, Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch, ING Bank, a Branch of ING-DiBa AG, Banca IMI S.P.A, London Branch, Všeobecná úverová banka, a.s., CIB Bank ltd, J.P.Morgan Securities plc, Mizuho bank, ltd., AO Mizuho Bank (Moscow), MUFG Bank, Ltd., Natixis, AO Raiffeisenbank, Société Générale, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Limited, AO UniCredit Bank and UniCredit S.p.A., acted as Mandated Lead Arrangers. ING Bank is the Coordinator and Documentation Agent, UniCredit Bank AG, London Branch is the Facility Agent. Debevoise & Plimpton LLP were the legal adviser to the company and Clifford Chance CIS Limited acted as the legal adviser to the Lenders.

Nornickel signed a syndicated loan facility agreement for up to USD 4,150 million