Austrian steel company Voestalpine AG (VOE.VI) said Thursday it had secured a syndicated loan of EUR800 million in two tranches in order to safeguard medium and long-term financing.

The loan, issued by a consortium of 11 banks, will be supplied in two tranches of EUR400 million, each with a maturity of five years.

The company said the first tranche will safeguard the company's liquidity needs for investments and repayments during the 2013 fiscal year. The second tranche is intended to cushion potential market disturbances in the field of financing and is a purely precautionary measure.

"Taking measures to safeguard liquidity represents a further diversification of our recent corporate action," said Chief Financial Officer Robert Ottel.

Foreign banks make up two thirds of the consortium, the remaining third of the banking partners comes from Austria, and is being coordinated by the UniCredit Bank Austria AG (UCG.MI) and the Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank (ACA.FR).

In January 2011, Voestalpine successfully placed a corporate bond with a volume of EUR500 million.

 
-By Nicole Lundeen, Dow Jones Newswires; +43 1 513 69 2210, nicole.lundeen@dowjones.com