MOSCOW—The Sonic Duo carrier, which is the Moscow stronghold of the pan-Russian Megafon project, received a US$138 million loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the German HypoVereinsbank and Nordea, a leading Scandinavian investment group.
Sonic Duo said it had already received the first tranche of the syndicated credit worth US$75 million, and the remaining funds will arrive in 2002. The loan will be used to expand its GSM 900/1800 MHz network.
EBRD and IFC are providing US$40 million each, while Nordea and HypoVereinsbank are granting a combined US$58 million export credit.
EBRD said it is the first major credit to a telecom business in Russia since the August 1998 financial crisis.
Last year, Sonic Duo merged with North-Western GSM and several regional carriers into the Megafon project of St. Petersburg-based Telecominvest holding. Sonic Duo is currently operating in Moscow under the North-Western GSM trademark and is to switch to the Megafon trademark this year.
Megafon is the only de-jure nationwide operator in Russia as it holds licenses for the whole territory of the country. Its two major competitors, Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) and Vimpelcom (BeeLine), lack licenses in certain territories, but have much bigger operation zones.
MTS placed its first euro bonds worth US$250 million this year to finance regional expansion. BeeLine is also planning to borrow US$250 million either through euro bonds or through an EBRD credit.
