Rostelecom’s board approves borrowing 70 bln rbl from 3 banks

MOSCOW, Apr 14 (PRIME) -- The board of directors of Russian state-controlled telecom operator Rostelecom has approved taking out loans from three big local banks for 70 billion rubles in total, the operator said on Friday in a statement.

Rostelecom will open a credit line for 20 billion rubles with Alfa-Bank for about nine months; for 20 billion rubles with Gazprombank until December 2021; and for 30 billion rubles with VTB Bank for five years.

“The purpose of the credit line is to support operational, investment and financial activities of the borrower, including refinancing of its current liabilities,” Rostelecom said about loans from Alfa-Bank and VTB.

The loan from Gazprombank will be also used for financial and economic activities and repayment of debts to other lenders, as well as investments in charter capitals of other firms and purchase of shares on the secondary market, dividend payments to its shareholders, and others.

Rostelecom’s net debt widened 2% in 2016 to 177.5 billion rubles.

(56.6019 rubles – U.S. $1)

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