RLPC-Gazprom Neft to sign $1 bln loan Friday-banker

LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) - Russia's Gazprom Neft (SIBN.MM: Quote, Profile, Research), the oil arm of gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research), will sign an unsecured $1 billion dual-tranche loan on Friday, a banking source said.

The facility closed oversubscribed but was not increased, and banks' commitments have been scaled back accordingly, the banker added.

The deal is split between a three-year tranche that pays a margin of 150 basis points (bps) over LIBOR and a five-year tranche that pays 175 bps.

The five-year tranche totals around two-thirds of the total loan amount, the banker said.

In syndication, lenders were invited to commit at one of four levels. Banks were asked to commit $100 million for an upfront fee of 125 bps, $75 million for 110 bps, $50 million for 100 bps, or $25 million for 90 bps.

Mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners are BBVA, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi-UFJ, Barclays, SMBC and WestLB.

Gazprom Neft's president Alexander Dyukov said in April that it was planning to raise up to $2 billion via syndicated loans before the end of this year to fund new acquisitions and boost production.

Gazprom Neft's last loan was a $2.2 billion, three-year amortising term loan that signed in November 2007. That deal paid a margin of 75 bps over LIBOR.

Gazprom Neft is Russia's fifth-largest oil producer.

(Reporting by Christopher Mangham; editing by Rory Channing)