Thursday 28 March, 2013

Financing Update

Senior Management have made considerable progress with ongoing financial negotiations undertaken since the AGM in December.

Bank Loans

Sberbank Kazakhstan ("Sberbank") has agreed to extend both the term of current facilities (US$35m) by 34 months to October 2018 and the grace period for principal repayments until April 2014.

Deferment of principal repayments will reduce cash outflow by US$7m in 2013.

Significantly, an additional loan to finance expansion of the SX-EW plant at Benkala and provide working capital has recently received local approval, in anticipation of credit committee approval from Sberbank head office in Moscow.

Furthermore, following successful negotiations over the past twelve months, the Company has been awarded a grant by DAMU, a Kazakh government fund established to support small and medium-sized enterprises http://www.damu.kz/en.

DAMU will subsidise 5% interest on the existing Sberbank loans, thereby decreasing the effective interest rate on the US$20m investment loan from 9% to 4% and from 8.5% to 3.5% on US$9m of the US$15m working capital credit facility.

DAMU's contributions will further reduce cash outflow in 2013 by US$1.6m.

Loan Notes

Discussions are ongoing with RK Capital Management ("RK"), with the objective of restructuring the current loan notes (US$10m). RK has agreed to extend the term of the notes to allow arrangements to be finalised.

The term of the US$2.4m loan note from Central Asian Education Services SA has been extended by three months to 28 July 2013 and the term of the US$1.6m loan note from NNEF has received an extension of four months to 19 August 2013.

The Company greatly appreciates the flexibility offered by the loan note holders, which will facilitate timely recommencement of production at Benkala.

Conclusion

The Company continues to benefit from an established relationship with Sberbank and enjoys the continued support of private funds. The strength of these existing commitments heightens the prospect of additional finance for the expansion proposed at Benkala. Further announcements will be made in due course.

Yerlan Aliyev, Chairman and CEO, commented,

"The senior management team have worked tirelessly for several months, engaging in lengthy negotiations to ensure the financial stability of the Company. I'm delighted to report that our endeavours have proved successful and that Frontier is well positioned to achieve the targets planned for 2013. The continued financial support we are offered should further encourage investors to take confidence in the long-term potential that Benkala presents to shareholders".



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