OREANDA-NEWS. On 21 July 2009 was announced, that Deutsche Bank had recently taken a leading role in a syndicated pre-export finance (PXF) facility for Russian oil company, TNK-BP.

The deal is the first syndicated transaction in the Russian market in 2009, following on from a number of club deals in which Deutsche Bank has also been the market leader. Despite being launched in extremely tough economic conditions, the facility managed to attract significant commitments from several international banks. The tenor is three years. Global Transaction Banking’s Structured Trade & Export Finance (STEF) Distribution team in London worked as bookrunner on the deal together with the Structured Commodity Trade Finance team (part of STEF) in Amsterdam who originated the mandate as one of four initial mandated lead arrangers along with Calyon, Unicredit and ING. Deutsche Bank is also Facility and Security Agent on the deal.

The transaction builds on the relationship with TNK which started with the SCTF team in Amsterdam working together with Deutsche Bank Moscow since 2000.

Mehmet Saydam, the deal team leader from SCTF, said: “Our lead role on this transaction was possible because we were already able to give the client our commitment before year end 2008, when most banks had simply shut up shop, thanks to the support from CRM.”

Boris Jaquet from the STEF Distribution team in London added: "The levels of commitments received so far ? for what can be considered the first syndicated transaction this year, as opposed to a club deal, for a Russian commodity producer ? is another clear testimony of the resilience of the PXF market. It also demonstrates the superior placement capabilities of Deutsche Bank's dedicated Distribution unit despite very adverse market conditions." Proceeds of the loan which pays a margin of 4% over LIBOR will be used by TNK-BP for general corporate purposes including trade finance.

TNK-BP is a leading Russian oil company and is among the top ten privately-owned oil companies in the world in terms of crude oil production. The company was formed in 2003 as a result of the merger of BP’s Russian oil and gas assets and the oil and gas assets of Alfa, Access/Renova group (AAR). BP and AAR each own 50% of TNK-BP.