Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 13
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
KAZ Minerals PLC has reached agreement on a new $300 million credit facility with the Development Bank of Kazakhstan which is scheduled to be signed on 14 December 2016, the company reported.
The bank’s facility will finance the completion of the Aktogay project in Kazakhstan which began commissioning of its main sulphide concentrator on Dec. 6, 2016.
The facility is expected to be fully drawn before the year-end and extends for a term of 8.5 years until final maturity in June 2025. The loan is repayable in instalments with the first repayment due in June 2018, followed by semi-annual repayments in May and November of each year from 2019 until 2024 and a final repayment in June 2025.
The facility bears an interest rate of US dollar LIBOR +4.5 percent and contains a financial covenant which is the same as the group’s loan facilities with the China Development Bank, based on a ratio of total liabilities to total assets, with adjustments to mitigate the translation impact of movements in the US dollar/tenge exchange rate.
KAZ Minerals also announces that an increased commitment by ING Bank N.V. in the pre-export finance facility has been agreed for an additional $50 million under the accordion feature. The additional commitment is expected to be drawn before the year-end. The total amount outstanding under the pre-export finance facility as at 31 December 2016, including the additional drawing, is expected to be approximately $283 million.
The company intends to resume discussions with the pre-export finance facility bank syndicate over a longer-term refinancing of the facility, after release of its 2016 financial statements.
KAZ Minerals operates four mines and three concentrators in the East Region of Kazakhstan, the Bozymchak copper-gold mine in Kyrgyzstan, the Bozshakol open pit copper mine in the Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan and the Aktogay open pit copper mine in the East Region of Kazakhstan.
The company produced 81,000 tons of copper cathode in 2015. The group’s major growth projects at Bozshakol and Aktogay are expected to deliver one of the highest growth rates in the industry.
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