OREANDA-NEWS. August 06, 2007. JSC “Bank CenterCredit” (the “Bank”) has successfully completed the transaction, exercising the roll-over option and increasing the syndication loan amount, which was initially raised on July 19, 2006 for the amount of US$ 300 million, reported the press-centre of Bank CenterCredit.

The new US$ 450 million Loan Agreement was signed on July 16, 2007. The deal was arranged by ING Bank N.V., Standard Bank Plc and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Limited acting as Mandated Lead Arrangers.

The deal is structured into 3 tranches: A, B and C with a one, two and three year term, respectively. After the successful syndication, the amount of the annual Tranche A was extended for the next period and increased from US$ 122,8 million US$ 272.8 million. Apart from the traditional banks-participants, most of which have substantially increased their shares in the syndication, there were new incoming banks, such as ICICI Bank, Mega International Commercial Bank Co. Ltd., FBN Bank (UK) Limited, First Gulf Bank, T. Is Bankasi A.S. Bahrain Branch, Bayerische Landesbank, UBS AG, Zurcher Kantonalbank and others. In the overall, 38 international financial institutions took part in the transaction.

“The result is obvious: the Bank’s team has done a large-scale and quality work, showing a high level professionalism, which, in the outcome, has brought forward a successful completion of the deal with a more than double increase of the amount. Ample quantity of the new banks and financial institutions stepping-in into the transaction is another evidence that investors and partners feel themselves quite comfortable on the Kazakh market and are ready to increase their risk exposures on the local banks, including the Bank CenterCredit, acknowledging its stable financial results, consistent strategy and sound management”, - noted Managing Director of the Bank Timur Ishmuratov in his comments on the transaction.

As of April 1, 2007 the Bank CenterCredit was the 6th largest commercial bank in Kazakhstan with a wide branch network comprising 20 branches and 144 centers of financial and retail service throughout the country. The Bank has international credit ratings from Moody’s and Fitch Ratings at “Ba1” and “BB-”, respectively, the Outlook is “Stable”.

As of April 1, 2007 the net income of the Bank equaled KZT 1,2 billion, assets increased to KZT 666,7 billion, own capital – to KZT 41,9 billion.