OREANDA-NEWS. August 08, 2008. The USD 300 million debt facility for the Eurasian Development Bank (“EDB”, owned by Russia and Kazakhstan has successfully been signed. It is EDB's third international syndicated loan. Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich AG (RZB) acted as book runner as well as mandated lead arranger together with ING, SMBCE and WestLB (all bookrunners), reported the press-centre of Priorbank. 
 
Originally, the deal was launched at USD 125 million and subsequently increased to USD 300 million following an oversubscription. The facility has a tenor of 2 years and margin of 100 basis points p. a. It will be used for general corporate purposes, including for its growing investment portfolio.

26 banks participated in the deal, with mostly German speaking and Taiwanese banks among the investors. EDB, whose current credit ratings are BBB+/BBB+/A3, raised USD 150 million in December 06 and USD 400 million in December 07. This transaction was assigned an individual rating of BBB+ by Standard & Poor's. 
 
"Given current challenging market conditions for Kazakh borrowers and a generally tough market, the success of this deal is notable. It underlines the reality, though, that borrowers with a good track record, solid shareholders, sensible pricing and the right mandated lead arrangers can still secure financing in size", says Patrick Butler, responsible for RZB's Investment Banking.