EUKOR concludes USD 680 million refinancing deal

On November 30, 2004, EUKOR Car Carriers Inc. (EUKOR) successfully concluded a USD 680 million refinancing deal, arranged by the Korea Development Bank (KDB) in cooperation with Korea Exchange Bank (KEB).

The refinancing packa-ge includes a total of USD 380 million in syndicated loans, issuance of KRW 320 billion worth of corporate bonds for public offering and a swap transaction. It was structured in order to provide the most favorable conditions for EUKOR with regards to its current financial structure and also in consideration of its credit rating, future cash flow and financial flexibility. As part of a wider refinancing scheme, this deal was preceded by a KRW 170 billion 5-year corporate bond issuance on September 8, 2004. Through these important transactions, EUKOR has further upgraded its financial stability by saving cost through earlier repayment of its borrowings out of the Acquisition Financing made in 2002 and earlier mitigation of the refinancing burden concerning part of the funds maturing in 2008.

Mr. Kim, Young Kee, Head of Corporate Banking Department 2 at The Korea Development Bank, which acted as lead arranger of the deal, said: "In arranging this financing, we adopted an optimized financial structure which will help EUKOR to considerably reduce its financial costs in consideration of its future cash flow. We could offer the most favourable interest rates through adopting a method of having part of the funds supplied in KRW through the issuance of domestic corporate bonds and swapping it with USD in consideration of the prevailing situation in the corporate bond market. "

EUKOR President and CEO Mr. Carl-Johan Hagman commented: "We are pleased to see the continuous commitment and trust shown in EUKOR from leading financial institutions in Korea. This deal, which concludes the re-financing of all of our initial acquisition debt of USD 1,050 million, has not only given us increased financial strength and reduced our costs in the shorter term, but also significantly affected our overall financial flexibility over the coming years."