Morgan Lewis announced that it has advised Sberbank Europe, the Austria-based subsidiary of Sberbank of Russia, in the signing of its debut syndicated term loan facility for EUR 350 million equivalent. The loan has a tenor of 364 days with bullet repayment and carries a margin of 60 points over EURIBOR.
A number of major international banks from the U.S., Europe, and Japan joined the loan facility, which was oversubscribed at the senior syndication phase, and was successfully launched into general syndication in February 2014.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Bank, Citi, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, HSBC Bank, ING Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and UniCredit Bank Austria acted as Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners for the Facility. Societe Generale joined as Lead Arranger; BNP Paribas as Co-arranger; while Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg, Sberbank of Russia, and UBS joined as Lead Managers. Barclays Bank, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, and ING Bank acted as joint Coordinators of the Facility. Barclays Bank acted as Documentation Agent with ING Bank acting as Publicity Agent. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft Filiale Luxemburg will act as Facility Agent.
The Morgan Lewis team advising Sberbank Europe was led by Business and Finance Partner Bruce Johnston, who was joined by Business and Finance Partner Grigory Marinichev and Associate Michaela Schmiederova.
Bruce Johnston stated: “The loan is important because it is the first major loan to a Russian state-owned company since the crisis in Ukraine. It demonstrates the confidence of the international banking community in Sberbank.”
