Akin Gump Advises Russian Airline UTair on Its Successful $809 Million Debt Refinancing
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(Moscow) – International law firm Akin Gump has advised Russian airline UTair on the successful completion of the refinancing of its debt portfolio.
The transaction is structured as two syndicated loans with an aggregate value of 42.6 billion rubles (c. $628 million) and two bond issues with a total nominal value of about 13.3 billion rubles (c. $181 million) maturing in seven and 12 years respectively. The seven-year syndicated loan is guaranteed by the government of the Russian Federation for 50 percent of the loan amount, alongside a syndicate of 11 banks, with Sberbank the lead arranger and agent and collateral manager.
Natalia Baratiants, managing partner of Akin Gump’s Moscow office, who led the Akin Gump team advising UTair, commented, “This has been an outstanding and unprecedented deal in many respects. The restructuring has been extremely complex and taken more than two years to complete. We very much hope that the work that all sides have done will result in the steady, ongoing and successful operation of UTair for years to come.”
The Akin Gump team advising UTair was led by Natalia Baratiants with Moscow corporate transactions partner Svetlana Volevich, supported by counsel Alexander Shalaev; senior counsel Dmitry Shiryaev; counsel Alexander Urlyapov, Olga Te and Olga Khrabrova; associates Anna Kardash and Alexey Maslyaev; and many others in the Moscow office.
Founded in 1945, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
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