Russian steelmaker Evraz reduces loan with four bank syndicate
A RUSSIAN steelmaker backed by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has scaled back a multimillion pound fundraising as Western banks remain jittery over the Ukraine crisis. Yesterday London-listed Evraz announced it had secured £253million of loans from a syndicate of four banks, sending its shares 3p higher to 103p.
The loan amount is adequate for Evraz’s needs at this moment
In June it said it was seeking to raise up to £590million from up to 10 banks but since then the conflict in Ukraine has escalated and the US and EU have imposed sanctions on some dealings with Russian firms – although Evraz is not on any of their sanctions lists. Germany’s Deutsche, Holland’s ING, France’s Société Générale and Austria’s Raiffeisen worked with Evraz on its fundraising.
Sources said negotiations about the deal had been complicated by the ultra-cautious approach of banks as a result of the crisis.
A spokesman for Evraz said: “The loan amount is adequate for Evraz’s needs at this moment.” Proceeds will be used to refinance existing debt.
Abramovich owns a 31 per cent stake in Evraz which fl oated on the London Stock Exchange in 2005 and has a market value of £1.5billion.
