OREANDA-NEWS. On November 5, 2007, LLC Lenta, ABN AMRO Bank N.V., Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich AG  and ZAO Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBRU) (RZB and RBRU together referred to as "RZB Group") successfully signed a syndicate of banks into a EUR 200 million Syndicated Term Loan Facility,  Raiffeisenbank's press service announced.

The transaction is Lenta's largest international syndicated loan to date. The loan is priced initially at a margin of 1.40% over EURIBOR or LIBOR, depending on the loan's currency. The margin may vary over the life of the loan depending on the debt level. Participation fees were 50bps (EUR 20mn), 35bps (EUR 10mn) and 25bps (EUR 5mn), respectively.

Lenta plans to use the facility to refinance its existing borrowing and support ongoing capital expenditure and strategic expansion of its hypermarket chain to the Russian regions.

The syndicate consists of the following lenders:

Mandated Lead Arrangers (MLAs)
ABN AMRO
Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft
RZB Group

Lead Arrangers
BNP PARIBAS
Citi
ZAO CALYON RUSBANK
Banque Societe Generale Vostok

Co-Arrangers
Investkredit Bank AG
Caixa Geral de Depositos, S.A.
HSBC Bank plc
Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberesterreich AG

Lead Manager
ZAO Banca Intesa

The roles of the MLAs:
ABN AMRO: bookrunner, facility agent, information memorandum
Commerzbank: bookrunner, documentation agent
RZB: bookrunner, publicity agent

The success of this transaction demonstrates the strong market appetite to invest in companies operating in the expanding Russian retail sector. Lenta is the largest retail chain in the North-West region of Russia, and the third largest in the country, operating through 22 hypermarkets in St. Petersburg, Astrakhan, Barnaul, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Togliatti, Tyumen, and Volgograd and employing over 8,800 staff. Retail sales for 2006 were USD1.02 billion.