JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Russian miner Alrosa has reduced its debt to $1.48-billion, following an early repayment of $120-million on its $720-million bank loan due in 2019.
The diamond mining group has refinanced the balance of $600-million through two new loans of $350-million and $250-million issued by Raiffeisenbank and Rosbank, respectively, due for repayment in December 2018. The new loans have a lower rate than the 4.3% of the $720-million loan.
"We managed to borrow from international banks at a rate lower than the yield to maturity of Alrosa’s Eurobonds, which confirms the company's stable financial position. The impact of lower interest rate payments driven by these initiatives will exceed $30-million," comments CEO Alexey Philippovskiy.
Alrosa set out to refinance its debt following the improvement of its credit rating in July, when S&P gave the company a rating that matched the BB+ sovereign rating.