Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba), home-base of the Line 6 Expansion Project, is pleased to announce that it has successfully closed the first tranche of c. US$ 700 million from Export Credit Agency (ECA) covered facilities to finance the Company’s Power Station 5 and Power Distribution System.
The facilities are made-up of: US$ 310.4 million SERV Guaranteed Export Credit with an interest margin of 90 basis point per annum over the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), EUR 314.3 million SERV Guaranteed Export Credit with an interest margin of 65 basis point per annum over the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR) – the SERV-covered facilities have 15-year tenor wherein the principal amount is to be repaid over 12-year period, and EUR 50 million Euler Hermes Guaranteed Export Credit with an interest margin of 55 basis point per annum over EURIBOR – the Euler Hermes-covered facility has 14-year tenor wherein the principal amount is to be repaid over 12-year period.
Commenting on this achievement, Alba’s Chairman of Board of Directors, Shaikh Daij Bin Salman Bin Daij Al Khalifa said:
“Closing successfully the first tranche of the ECA-backed facilities for Power Station 5 and Power Distribution System is another unprecedented milestone towards satisfying the full funding of our Project.
We look forward to secure the 2nd tranche of the ECAs in order to accelerate the rapid growth of Alba with its brownfield Line 6 Expansion Project.”
The participating banks acting as the Mandated Lead Arrangers in the ECA-covered facilities consist of Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Citibank N.A., Commerzbank AG, JP Morgan Chase Bank N.A. and Standard Chartered Bank (HK) Ltd. Commerzbank AG acted as the Facility Agent for both SERV and Euler Hermes covered facilities.
Expected to start metal production in early 2019, Line 6 Expansion Project will boost the per-annum production by 540,000 metric tonnes upon its full ramp-up, bringing Alba’s total production capacity to 1,500,000 metric tonnes per annum to make Alba the world’s largest single-site aluminium smelter.