Russia's Gazprom raised €1 billion from Japanese and US banks
Gazprom has concluded an agreement with Japanese and American banks on a five-year loan for €1 billion, as stated in the company’s press release received by RBC.
Among the creditors of the gas monopoly that signed the agreement were Japan’s banks Mizuho Bank, LTD (Mizuho) and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), as well as US-based JP Morgan Bank.
Last March, the company raised €700 million from Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank. In early November, they raised another €700 million from Italian UniCredit. Gazprom's net debt at the end of the second quarter of the year 2017 totaled 2.29 trillion rubles, having increased by 19% for the year.
On November 23, the board of Gazprom approved an investment program for 2018 costing 1.28 trillion rubles, one-third of which was agreed to be funded from external loans. The amount of loans will reach a record-breaking 416.97 billion rubles , an increase of 44.8% compared to the current year's planned loans.
On June 22, at a press conference, Deputy Chairman in Charge of Finance Andrey Kruglov said that Gazprom was planning to borrow 288 billion rubles in 2017.