Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) has secured the $200 million finance package for the construction of the Line 5 Project. The underwriting agreement to issue Floating Rate Bonds which was signed between Alba and the Bank of Bahrain & Kuwait, the Gulf Investment Corporation, the National Bank of Bahrain and Securities Investment Corporation, will be used to further fund the construction of Line 5 as well as finance general corporate strategies.
As per the agreement, the National Bank of Bahrain will be assigned as the agent responsible for fixing the periodic interest rate on the bonds and for carrying out interest payments in cooperation with KPMG Fakhroo who has been selected as registrar for the issue. The Bank of Bahrain & Kuwait will act as the agent on behalf of the bondholder.
The $200 million floating bonds carry an attractive interest margin of 0.85 percent over LIBOR and will mature in March 2013 although investors have an option to get their bonds redeemed on the interest payment date in March 2008. Each bond carries a face value of $1,000 and an investor is obliged to apply for a minimum of five bonds totaling $5,000.
“Alba’s $1.7 billion expansion project has already allocated a total spending budget of $520 million for the Bahraini market and has created opportunities for the local contractors & suppliers who are being employed to undertake the construction of the project” explained CEO of Alba, Bruce Hall. “With the construction of the fifth potline, more than 4,000 project related jobs will be created during the 25-month construction phase and over 400 permanent jobs will be created to operate Potline 5, with the recruitment of Bahrainis being at least to the existing level of nationalization” continued Hall.
Alba is a 520,000 ton per annum aluminium smelter. As well as its reduction lines and casthouses, the company has a dedicated carbon department and a 1,500 megawatt power plant. A 450,000 ton per annum coke calcining plant is also in operation at the company's marine terminal. The company was officially opened in 1971 and its shareholders today are the Government of Bahrain, SABIC Industrial Investments and Breton Investments.
Alba’s Line 5 Expansion, due for completion in June 2005 will expand the company’s annual production by a further 307,000 tons per annum, making it the largest smelter in the world outside of eastern Europe. At a total cost of $1.7 billion, the expansion will include a new power station, carbon, casthouse and other facilities. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
