Morgan Lewis represented CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW, a privately-owned universal commercial bank operating in Moscow and the Moscow region, on a $500 million offering of 5-year Eurobonds (the “Notes”) with an interest rate of 7.7% p.a. The bonds were issued by CBOM Finance p.l.c., an Irish special purpose vehicle, for the purpose of funding a $500 million loan to CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW. The offering closed on February 1, 2013. The proceeds of the offering will be used by the bank for general banking purposes.
The bonds were placed among investors that included private banks and financial institutions, asset management companies and insurance companies from a wide range of geographical areas including Europe, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Switzerland and Asia. The offering was made pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S. Barclays, BofA Merrill Lynch, Raiffeisen Bank International and The Royal Bank of Scotland acted as joint lead managers of the offering.
CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW provides a wide range of banking services including corporate and retail lending, cash collection and delivery, guarantees and letters of credit, trade and structured finance, factoring, leasing, deposit taking, international settlements, plastic card services and foreign exchange and banknote transactions.
Morgan Lewis served as U.S., English and Russian legal adviser to CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW on the offering. The Morgan Lewis team was led by Business & Finance partner Carter Brod, who was joined by a London-Moscow team including Business & Finance partners Yulia Cherkassova and Christopher Harrison and Business & Finance associates Vinay Varma, Edwin de la Rosa, Liya Grishaeva, Anatoly Alexandrov and Valentina Semenikhina.
“We are pleased to have advised CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW on this successful offering, which is a milestone transaction for the bank,” Brod said. “In addition to being the bank’s largest funding transaction to date, it follows an eventful year for the bank that included EBRD and IFC becoming shareholders,” he added.
