Rosneft says to get $9.7 billion in loans from TNK-BP

The board of Russia's top crude producer, Rosneft , has approved several five-year loans with total value of up to $9.7 billion from TNK-BP , the company it acquired last week, Rosneft said in regulatory filing on Tuesday.

Rosneft, which had to borrow around $40 billion to acquire TNK-BP, said the board approved several loans of 152 billion roubles ($4.92 billion) and $4.8 billion.

Sources close to the deal had said that it would be possible for Rosneft to refinance part of the cost of the takeover by tapping cash balances accumulated at the highly-profitable TNK-BP.

Moscow-traded shares of TNK-BP Holding, the traded unit of TNK-BP, fell almost 20 percent on the news to 38.26 roubles, a new historic low. Rosneft has so far ruled out making a buyout offer to minorities. Shares in Rosneft were down 0.1 percent.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Maya Dyakina; Editing by Douglas Busvine)