OREANDA-NEWS. Uralkali (LSE: URKA; the Company), one of the world's largest potash producers, has signed a loan agreement in the amount of USD 450 million with five international banks.

The Mandated Lead Arrangers of the unsecured facility are Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, ING Bank N.V., OJSC Nordea Bank, SG Group (represented by Societe Generale  and ROSBANK (OJSC JSCB)) and ZAO UniCredit Bank.

The self-arranged club deal was initiated in February 2014 and is the Company's debut club unsecured facility.

OJSC Nordea Bank acted as Documentation Agent, Societe Generale acted as Hedging Agent, ZAO Unicredit Bank acted as Passport Bank, and Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft (Filiale Luxemburg) is acting as Facility Agent.

The interest rate is LIBOR plus 175 bps margin with the loan maturity of five years. The loan facility will be used to refinance Uralkali's existing loans.

Viktor Belyakov, Uralkali CFO, commented:

The new self-arranged unsecured credit facility demonstrates the availability of international funding to top-tier Russian borrowers. Although Uralkali is not planning to increase its debt, we continue developing relationship with foreign financial institutions in order to obtain funding on favourable terms. The funds raised under the committed credit line will enable us to refinance a part of our existing facilities, decrease our financing costs and increase the share of unsecured financing in our loan portfolio.