MOSCOW, March 26 (Reuters) - The board of Russia's top crudeproducer, Rosneft, has approved several five-yearloans with total value of up to $9.7 billion from TNK-BP, the company it acquired last week, Rosneft said inregulatory filing on Tuesday.
Rosneft, which had to borrow around $40 billion to acquireTNK-BP, said the board approved several loans of 152 billionroubles ($4.92 billion) and $4.8 billion.
Sources close to the deal had said that it would be possiblefor Rosneft to refinance part of the cost of the takeover bytapping cash balances accumulated at the highly-profitableTNK-BP.
Moscow-traded shares of TNK-BP Holding, the traded unit ofTNK-BP, fell almost 20 percent on the news to 38.26 roubles, anew historic low. Rosneft has so far ruled out making a buyoutoffer to minorities. Shares in Rosneft were down 0.1 percent.