Gold and silver producer Polymetal is replacing its existing loans with Russian State-owned banking group Sberbank with a new $500-million credit facility.
This is the first ten-year facility in the mining company’s history and corporate finance director Eugenia Onuschenko said on Wednesday that it would “significantly” extend the average tenor of its loan portfolio at a reduced cost.
The ten-year loan would also smooth out Polymetal’s repayment profile by removing peak repayments from the years of construction of Nezhda and POX-2.
“We are very pleased with the level of support received on this transaction from Sberbank. The ten-year credit facility further reinforces our strong relationship with Sberbank as a long-term partner.”
The credit facility would be drawn down until the 2019 year-end and was repayable in equal instalments between 2026 and 2029.
Polymetal's net debt of $1.7-billion at October 1, 2019, remained largely unchanged compared with the end of the second quarter.