Ex-Im Bank Business Development Staff Mr. Brian Sant Angelo Director - Russia, CIS, and Turkey 811 Vermont Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20571 Ph: (202) 565-3484 Fax: (202) 565-3961 Other Contacts: BISNIS is the U.S. Government's primary market information center for U.S. companies exploring business opportunities in Russia and other Newly Independent States. U.S. Embassy in Russia English-language website Russian-language website The U.S Commercial Service Offices in Russia Russia today is fundamentally a different country from what it was 10 years ago. The country's macro-economic indicators are stronger and healthier than at any time during the last 10 years. The U.S Commercial Service offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok assist U.S. companies with successful market entry by providing professional market research and customized contact facilitation services. English-language website Russian-language website Moscow Staff St. Petersburg Staff Vladivostok Staff Yekaterinburg Staff

Ex-Im Bank in Russia

Structured and Project Finance

Ex-Im Bank also offers guarantees and direct loans to finance the construction and operation of projects through structured finance transactions, including limited recourse project finance in which project cash flows are used for repayment of the financing. In addition to these "greenfield" financings of new projects, under appropriate circumstances Ex-Im Bank may also support "brownfield" projects, which involve borrowers that have existing revenue streams to which Ex-Im can look to as supporting collateral.

Limited Recourse Project Finance: Ex-Im Bank's limited recourse project finance is an arrangement in which Ex-Im Bank lends to newly created project companies and looks to the project's future cash flows as the source of repayment instead of relying directly on foreign governments, financial institutions or established corporations. This financing arrangement is especially appropriate where hard currency revenues can be captured offshore or long-term off-take contracts insure project cash flows. Ex-Im Bank will work with project developers or equity participants to develop a structure that can be sustained throughout the project's operations. Ex-Im Bank is also looking at other innovative structures such as risk sharing with suppliers and reinsurance in order to facilitate transactions in important industry sectors that may not meet these criteria.

Limited recourse project finance has become an increasingly effective method to finance large-scale transactions throughout much of the world. Given the many risks associated with the successful completion of these projects, most investors are unwilling to finance these transactions from their balance sheets. The preferred structure is the establishment of a special purpose company ("SPC"), whose assets and revenues are pledged to the project's lenders until debt service is repaid. The success of this SPC will depend upon the successful operation of several integrated contractual arrangements between suppliers, offtakers, lenders, contractors, etc., and the ability of the lenders to take security interests over the SPC's assets, perfect such interests, and foreclose in the event of default or bankruptcy. Clearly any equity sponsor or lender must feel comfortable that property or contractual rights specified in these contractual arrangements will be fully acknowledged, that remedies will exist and that enforcement mechanisms will be available.

Other Structured Finance: In addition to limited recourse project finance, Ex-Im Bank also utilizes other types of structured finance through which the Bank can consider existing companies overseas as potential borrowers based on their creditworthiness as reflected on their balance sheet and other sources of collateral or security enhancements. Ex-Im Bank has done structured transactions such as multiple-country fiber-optic cable, oil and gas projects, air traffic control, telecommunications and manufacturing entities.