Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In November 2013, a syndicate of 11 banks — including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (BOC) — signed a $250 million USD syndicated copper cathode and copper wire rod pre-export credit facility agreement with ZAO Russian Copper Company (RCC) (RMK) — a Russian copper producer whose majority shareholder is Russian billionaire Igor Altushkin — for refinancing and working capital purposes. It carried a maturity period of five years, and an amortizing structure. The facility was secured by (i.e. collateralized against) the assignment of copper export proceeds up to the final buyers and by first demand guarantees from RCC. The PXF covers RCC's export of copper cathode and copper wire rod. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower to refinance its existing debt and for working capital purposes. In addition to ICBC, the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: Natixis, Société Générale S.A. (SocGen), Rosbank, Alfa Bank, Nordea, Sberbank Europe, Trafigura Beheer (through its Galena arm), Amsterdam Trade Bank, Fimbank, and Federated. Natixis, SocGen, and Rosbank acted as mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners; the other eight lenders joined in syndication, which was launched in October 2013 and closed in November 2013. Nordea, Sberbank Europe, and Alfa Bank acted as mandated lead arrangers. ICBC, Amsterdam Trade Bank, and Trafigura served as lead arrangers. Fimbank and Federated Project and Trade Finance served as arrangers. Natixis served as facility and security agent. Natixis Bank and Rosbank served as passport banks. The deal was refinanced and increased to a five-year $300 million USD loan in November 2016, although ICBC is not known to have not participated in that loan.
Staff comments
1. Russian Copper Company (RCC) — also known as Russkaya Mednaya Kompaniya — is Russia's third-largest copper producer. It is legally incorporated and headquartered in Russia. Igor Altushkin is RCC's founder and largest shareholder. 2. A pre-export finance (PXF) facility is an arrangement in which a commodity producer gets up-front cash from a customer in return for a promise to repay the customer with that commodity (possibly at a discount) in the future. PXF funds may be advanced by a lender or syndicate of lenders to a commodity producer to assist the company in meeting either its working capital needs (for example, to cover the purchase of raw materials and costs associated with processing, storage and transport) or its capital investment needs (for example, investment in plant and machinery and other elements of infrastructure). PXF facilities are usually secured by (1) an assignment of rights by the producer under an ‘offtake contract’ (i.e., a sale and purchase contract between the producer and a buyer of that producer of goods or commodities), and (2) a collection account charge over a bank account into which proceeds due to the producer from the buyer of the goods or commodities under the offtake contract are credited. There are two key documents in prepayment finance transactions: a contract providing for the advance payment by the offtaker to the producer for the purchase of goods/commodities (the 'Prepayment Contract'), and a loan agreement between a lender and the offtaker (the 'Offtaker Loan Agreement') under which the advance payment is financed. 3. The individual contribution of the 11 lenders to this $250 million USD syndicated loan is unknown. For the time being, AidData has estimated the contribution of ICBC by assuming that each lender contributed an equal amount ($22,727,272.7273 USD) to the syndicated loan.