Cleary Gottlieb acted as English and Russian counsel to The International Industrial Bank, Joint Stock Company (“IIB”), a leading Russian commercial bank, in its Regulation S offering of $100 million of Loan Participation Notes due 2009. The notes were listed on the Irish Stock Exchange. Barclays Bank PLC and JCS Vneshtorgbank served as lead managers to the offering, which closed on July 31.
The notes were issued by IIB Luxembourg S.A., an “orphan” special purpose vehicle, and financed a loan to IIB. The proceeds from the loan will be used for general corporate purposes.
According to industry sources, IIB is Russia’s eleventh-largest bank in terms of lending volume and its thirteenth largest in terms of assets. It conducts banking operations across Russia, currently concentrating on providing banking services to large corporate clients and on various proprietary activities while developing retail and medium and small business banking.