June 24, 2013. President and Supervisory Board Chairman of the Russian Sberbank German Gref commented on the positive development dynamics in the way Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) was paying off its loan; this was the message addressed by the top official of the bank that heads the syndicate of ChTPZ creditors to Russia 24 reporters in the course of Saint Petersburg Economic Forum held on June 20-22.

‘This is a very complicated case of restructuring, the amount of debt is quite large, so it took the syndicate a long time to coordinate this scheme, it took many months, in fact. At the moment we can see some impressive improvements in the borrower’s figures. We believe ChTPZ Group will cope with its difficulties thanks to the very efficient management it has. I think we are to see some very significant improvements soon,’ Sberbank head said.

Last year, the Finance Ministry offered ChTPZ Group some guarantees that secured the Group’s syndicated loan liabilities. The loan was taken out to implement the company’s investment projects Vysota 239 and Iron Ozone 32.

According to Sergey Chemezov, the cost of launching the latter plant has not been discussed yet.

An RBC daily source that is aware of how the negotiations are proceeding points out that the plant might cost $50 to $70m to build.