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EBRD arranges $300 million syndicated loan to Romanian mobile phone operator
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development arranged a $300 million
syndicated loan to Romanian GSM operator MobiFon SA, which runs the country's
largest mobile network under the "Connex" brand. The funds will be used to
refinance debt and expand operations.
International lenders led by ABN AMRO Bank N.V. and Bank Austria Creditanstalt
AG provided more than a third of the $300 million facility, which includes
parallel $35 million loans from Export Development Canada and Nordic
Investment Bank.
Noreen Doyle, the EBRD's First Vice President, said the success of the
syndication in the current challenging market for telecoms illustrates the
growing confidence lenders have in providing long-term finance to
well-managed, strong companies in the Romanian private sector. Ms Doyle, who
recently visited MobiFon's Bucharest headquarters, noted that this is the
largest private-sector loan in Romania since reforms began in the early 1990s.
The six-year senior loan includes $230 million from the EBRD, of which $120
million was provided by international commercial banks under a "B" loan
structure. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. and Bank Austria Creditanstalt AG acted as Joint
Mandated Arrangers and Underwriters of the B Loan and the commercial bank
syndication. Co-lenders include Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij Voor
Ontwikkelingslanden N.V. (FMO), Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich, Citibank
N.A, Nordea and International Finance Participation Trust.
The EBRD, ABN AMRO Bank N.V. and some of the international lenders first lent
to MobiFon during its start-up phase in 1997 and then again in 1999. This new
loan will partly refinance existing debt, including the EBRD's two previous
loans, as well as provide funds for the company's ongoing expansion. As
MobiFon has established itself in the market, it has moved from project
financing to corporate borrowing.
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