OAO AK Transneft (Transneft) is pleased to announce that it has mandated Barclays Capital (the investment banking division of Barclays Bank PLC) as sole bookrunner and mandated lead arranger for a $200m unsecured term loan facility. The transaction marks Transneft’s return to in international syndicated loan market after 3.5 years when the company raised its debut international loan in September 2001.

 Proceeds of the facility, which has been underwritten by Barclays Capital, are to finance the construction of Phase III of the expansion of the Baltic Pipeline System (BPS) as well as for general corporate purposes including refinancing. The term loan has a final maturity of three-years with repayment in three instalments commencing after a grace period of two-years. Pricing on the unsecured loan facility is set at 115bp above Libor throughout.

 Transneft is the owner and monopoly operator of the Russian Federation’s main oil pipeline system and transports over 90% of Russia’s crude oil production and is the country’s main oil export channel. In 2004, crude oil transport volume exceeded 9m barrels per day (449 million metric tons or MMT), of which 238 MMT have been exported. The company operates 48,610km of long-distance pipelines, 336 oil refilling stations, and 849 oil reservoirs. 100% of the company’s registered (voting) shares are in Russian Federal ownership. Transneft’s consolidated 9 months 2004 IFRS revenues are R 108.6 Bn, net income – R 31.5 Bn.