Rostelecom directors approve 14-bln-ruble credit agreement with Sberbank
MOSCOW. July 24. (Interfax) - The board of directors of OJSC Rostelecom on Tuesday approved an agreement to raise two credit facilities with a limit of 7 billion rubles each from Sberbank of Russia , the company said in a statement.
The facilities are valid for four years and have a three-month MosPrime plus 1.75% per annum rate.
Rostelecom is taking out the loan resources to finance is operational and investment activities and to refinance its current obligations.
In June, Sberbank issued Rostelecom two loans worth 30 billion rubles each. Rostelecom has already taken out several loans since the beginning of this year, the largest of which were supplied by VTB (15 billion rubles, already paid off), Alfa Bank (7 billion rubles) and Nordea Bank (8.5 billion rubles). The operator also secured a 1.2-billion-ruble credit facility from Nota Bank and a 4-billion-ruble facility from Rosselkhozbank .
At the end of May, Rostelecom announced that its board of directors had approved a new three-year credit facility from VTB for 15 billion rubles.
Besides these borrowed funds, Rostelecom secured a Gazprombank credit for 10.7 billion rubles and a VTB credit for 8.3 billion rubles in February in order to finance a buyback of its own shares.
At the end of March, Rostelecom publicized plans to place eight exchange bond issues worth a combined 60 billion rubles, as well as five classical bond issues worth 40 billion rubles. However, the company's President Alexander Provotorov announced in June that the bonds are unlikely to be issued, since it is cheaper for Rostelecom to take out loans.
As of March 31, Rostelecom's net debt stood at 179.5 billion rubles, and its net debt to OIBDA (operating income before depreciation and amortization) ratio was 1.4.
