MOSCOW, April 24 (RIA Novosti) - State-owned savings bank Sberbank will give state-owned pipeline monopoly Transneft a first loan worth $487 million for construction of the East Siberia-Pacific pipeline, the Transneft head said Monday.
"An agreement [with Sberbank] has been signed. Besides, we are holding talks with a syndicate of Western banks on a five-year loan worth some $2 billion," Semyon Vainshtok said in an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta about the controversial $11.5-billion oil pipeline set to tap Asian energy markets.
Vainshtok said the interest rate on the loan would be low.
