OREANDA-NEWS. September 30, 2010. Gazprombank, BNP PARIBAS S.A. (France) and UNICREDIT CORPORATE BANKING S.P.A. (Italy) have signed an agreement to participate in a syndicated loan for Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant – the largest plant of Mechel Group metallurgical division – to finance construction of a universal rolling mill. The funds in the amount of USD 471 million* will be provided in three tranches by Gazprombank as organizer, BNP PARIBAS S.A. as frontier bank and organizer, and UNICREDIT CORPORATE BANKING S.P.A. as organizer. Gazprombank tranche makes out USD 219.4 million. The total term of financing is 10.5 years from the date of loan documents’ signing, Gazprombank loan term is 9 years. GPB tranche is refinanced within the frames of a loan agreement with the Export-Import Bank of China. Insurance of the credit risks is provided by three national export agencies: Euler Hermes (Germany), SACE (Italy), SINOSURE (China).

Gazprombank tranche is intended for investment financing of design, construction and assembly as well as adjustment of equipment to implement a project of Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant (Mechel Group) rolling workshop (No. 3) reconstruction including installation of the universal rolling mill with production capacity of 1.1 million tons a year.

Service entry of the rolling mill will enable Mechel Group to master manufacture of 100 m long high-quality rails for the Russian Railways (Open JSC) as well as extend the nomenclature high-quality structural shapes (beams, angles, channel bars, special profiles). Currently, no Russian company can manufacture rails that are planned for production at Chelyabinsk Plant. The Russian Railways imports rails for high-speed railroads from foreign vendors, namely, Nippon Steel from Japan.

* Certain part of the loan is provided in Euro. The total amount of the loan was calculated according to the cross-rate of the Bank of Russia as of Sept. 9th 2010.