Vimpelcom raises $1.8 bln revolving loan from 11 banks, $500 mln loan from Alfa-Bank
MOSCOW. April 8 (Interfax) - Vimpelcom Ltd. has raised a revolving loan for $1.8 billion from 11 banks to refinance a $500 million loan received in 2011, the telecoms holding said in a statement.
The first tranche of the new loan is for $1.65 billion, which can be increased by $150 million in six months. The loan term is three years.
Vimpelcom also raised a three-year loan from Alfa-Bank for $500 million for Vimpelcom Amsterdam B.V. companies from Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group are the beneficiaries of both Vimpelcom Amsterdam B.V. and Vimpelcom Ltd.
Both loans are guaranteed by Vimpelcom Holdings B.V.
The revolving credit facility of $1.8 billion was arranged by Barclays Bank plc, BNP Paribas Fortis, Citi, Credit Agricole CIB, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, Raiffeisen Bank International/ZAO Raiffeisenbank and Societe Generale.
"These credit facilities provide the company increased flexibility in managing its cash levels and will be used for general corporate purposes," Vimpelcom Ltd said.
"These two new facilities substantially improve the liquidity profile and financial flexibility of the group and is a further step to centralize group financing at VimpelCom as part of our strategic Value Agenda," said VimpelCom's CFO, Andrew Davies.
One of the purposes of the loan might be to refinance bonds issued by the Vimpelcom group's Wind Telecomunicazioni subsidiary as part of the company's recently announced debt restructuring.
Vimpelcom said in March that if the consent of shareholders was received, it was prepared to use 500 million euro of its own funds to retire some of the 1.3 billion euro debt on bonds. Wind would refinance the remainder itself by issuing new bonds.
Wind accounts for around half Vimpelcom's entire debt. As of the end of last year, Vimpelcom's net debt was $22.6 billion and net debt/EBITDA was 2.3. Overall debt was $27.45 billion with a ratio of 2.9). The average cost of the debt was 8.3% pa. Most of the debt - 49%, is denominated in euros (and attributable to Wind), with another 30% in dollars and 18% in rubles.