UPDATE: Russia’s Rostelecom submits secondary bid for 15.6 bln rbl loan

(Adds more comments on loans in last three paragraphs)

MOSCOW, Jun 15 (PRIME) -- Russian state-controlled telecom giant Rostelecom has submitted a new bid for a low-rate loan of 15.6 billion rubles under a project financing program, President Sergei Kalugin told reporters Monday.

“We’ve repeated an application for project financing for the same amount of 15.6 billion rubles. We’ve slightly changed (the form of the application), added a large clause on import replacement and sent it,” Kalugin said.

Rostelecom applied for cheap funding in early April to VTB. The company planned to use the money for a 19.5 billion rubles project called Digital Framework of Russia, in which the operator will invest 3.9 billion rubles of its own funds.

The application to VTB was the first of Rostelecom’s requests under its plan to borrow 60 billion rubles of low rate loans.

In order to participate in the funding program, projects must be under 20 billion rubles with the limit of borrowed funding of 80% of the project’s value. The borrower obtains a loan at a fixed rate of no more than 11% annually, and a bank can get money from the central bank at 9%. The government can provide a guarantee for up to 25% of the amount.

Shareholders also approved loan agreements with VTB for a total of up to 90 billion rubles, or equivalent, which can be borrowed in the future. Rostelecom said that the amount includes 60 billion rubles that could be borrowed from authorized banks, including VTB, under a state project financing program.

The operator will also refinance loans and bond issues totaling to some 30 billion rubles in July–June 2016.

The company will borrow publicly at a rate under the central bank’s key one plus 4% annually, or a three-month MosPrime plus 4% annually, or a fixed equivalent of such rates.

(54.5285 rubles – U.S. $1)

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