London. December 22. Interfax - A syndicate of banks headed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Citigroup has extended a $100 million loan to Kazakh GSM-900 mobile operator KaR-Tel, a subsidiary of VimpelCom, the EBRD said in a press release.

The EBRD will extend $50 million of its own resources for five years. The remaining $50 million was syndicated by four commercial banks for three years. The syndicate includes Citigroup, Bayerische Hypo-Und Vereinsbank AG, Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich AG and Nordea Bank AB.

The EBRD loan is part of a total of $230 million in financing that KaR-Tel has raised over two years, of which $130 million are consumer credits from suppliers guaranteed by export agencies and the company's own resources.