Russia's state-owned Rosneft has signed two loan agreements with a group of international banks for a total of $16.8 billion to finance acquisition of BP's 50% stake in Anglo-Russian TNK-BP, the company said Monday.
"Pursuant to these loan agreements, Rosneft obtains a 5-year loan of $4.1 billion and a 2-year loan of $12.7 billion from a group of international banks," a statement said, adding the agreements were signed last Friday.
The banks that acted as lead arrangers and lenders include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Bank, BNP Paribas, BTMU, Citibank, Credit Agricole, ING Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo Banking Group, J.P. Morgan, Mizuho Corporate Bank, Natixis, Nordea Bank, SMBC, Societe Generale and Unicredit Bank, it said.
The loans ensure "the completion of the deal, unprecedented for the Russian market," the statement said, quoting Rosneft president Igor Sechin.
Rosneft is in the process of buying out 100% in Anglo-Russian joint venture TNK-BP from its current shareholders: UK major BP and Russian consortium AAR.
The current shareholders own the company on a 50:50 basis. The acquisition of 100% in TNK-BP is expected to be completed in the first half of 2013, according to Rosneft.
Should the deal go through, Rosneft is to become the largest publicly listed oil producer in the world.
