The Russian mining and steel producing company Mechel has announced that it has raised a $2 billion pre-export finance facility to refinance its existing debt obligations.
Accordingly, the new facility is split between borrowers in Mechel's mining, steel, and ferroalloy divisions and is drawn in two tranches, a three-year one and a five-year one. Repayment will be done by monthly installments after grace periods of nine months and 15 months respectively.
The proceeds raised under the new $2 billion facility are being used to refinance Mechel's remaining debt obligations under the two syndicated pre-export facilities - the original $2 billion and the $1 billion facilities, raised for acquisition of Yakutugol and Oriel Resources respectively. Those facilities were already in the repayment phase with final maturity in December 2012.
Mechel appointed ING Bank N.V. and The Royal Bank of Scotland N.V. as coordinators for the loan.