6 Aug 2009 13:38

Russia's Razgulay completes restructuring of loan portfolio

MOSCOW. Aug 6 (Interfax) - Razgulay , one of Russia's biggest agricultural holdings, is in the final stages of restructuring its loan portfolio, the company said in a statement.

The company had debt of 26.1 billion rubles at the end of 2008 compared to 14 billion rubles at the start of the year. Debt due to be repaid in less than a year accounted for about 96% of the portfolio at the end of 2008.

As a result of restructuring, Razgulay intends to prolong more than 90% of its current debt and significantly increase the share of long-term loans in its portfolio to 84% at the end of 2009 from 4% at the end of 2008.

In April and May 2009, Razgulay-Finance LLC was unable to buy back all of second, third and fourth-series bond issues for a total of 5.4 billion rubles. After buying back 1.2 billion rubles worth of the bonds, the group managed to restructure debt on 4.88 billion rubles worth of the bonds that were to be bought back. The company will buy back another 3.66 billion rubles in bonds no earlier than March-May 2010.

Razgulay has unpaid debt on bonds of 541 million rubles. The company has already agreed on the restructuring of debt with holders of 527 million rubles in bonds, while talks are still under way with the remaining bondholders.

The company also said it attracted a five-year loan for 2.7 billion rubles in June 2009 from a Russian state-owned bank. The group is currently holding talks on arranging additional loan financing of 8.5 billion rubles for a period of five to eight years.

The Razgulay Group was founded in 1992 as a grain and sugar trading company. The group now has two holdings - grain and sugar - and produces, processes and sells agricultural products. Razgulay owns 36 grain, flour milling and cereal enterprises, 12 sugar mills and one- canned dairy products plant.

Razgulay closed 2008 with net losses of 6.2 billion rubles to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) compared with profit 1.45 billion rubles in 2007. Revenue fell to 31.01 billion rubles in 2008 from 36.4 billion rubles in 2007. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) declined to 2.6 billion rubles from 4.8 billion rubles.

Razgulay President Igor Potapenko is the company's main beneficiary.