Clifford Chance and Linklaters lead on $1.5bn Sberbank loan amid panel review
Clifford Chance and Linklaters have landed the lead roles as Russia’s Sberbank raises a three-year $1.5bn (£930m) loan from a syndicate of ten foreign banks.
The deal follows Sberbank’s completion of its first legal panel, in which it published both the winners and the losers (24 October 2012). Both Clifford Chance and Linklaters were appointed.
Clifford Chance advised the Russian bank on the deal, while Linklaters acted for the banking syndicate, led by London banking partner Mirthe van Kesteren and Moscow-based banking and finance partner Dmitry Suschev.
The banking syndicate consisted of Bank of America Securities, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Barclays Bank, BNP Paribas, Citibank, HSBC, ING Bank, JP Morgan, Mizuho Corporate Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, who were all lead arrangers and bookrunners for the syndicated loan.
Barclays acted as the overall loan coordinator and paying agent, Bank of New York Mellon acted as lead arranger and Commerzbank acted as joint arranger for the loan.
The loan, which was strongly oversubscribed, is one of the largest deals for Russian banks this year and has one of the longest lending periods.
Background to this deal:
Both Clifford Chance and Linklaters have acted on a large number of deals involving Sberbank.
Clifford Chance has advised the bank on a number of loans in the past, including acting for the bank in 2010 when it raised a $2bn (£1.25bn) syndicated loan.
Linklaters, which regularly acts for the underwriters on deals involving Sberbank, is advising the joint global coordinators on the Russian bank’s proposed secondary public offering (17 September 2012)
However, it also acts directly for the bank as well and advised Sberbank on its acquisition of Turkish-based Denizbank from Belgium’s Dexia for $3.9bn earlier this year (11 June 2012)
