Alrosa may repay $1 bln of debt ahead of time - acting president
MOSCOW. March 23 (Interfax) - Alrosa in 2015 may repay about $1 billion of debt ahead of schedule, the company's acting president, Ilya Ryashchin, said during a conference call.
"At the current exchange rate of the ruble to the dollar, cash flow should be sufficient for the early repayment of debt amounting to $1 billion in 2015," he said.
According to the plan, Alrosa will repay in June-October of this year, ruble-denominated bonds for 20 billion rubles (about $334 million). The funds for this payment have already been accumulated in a deposit, Ryashchin said.
Alrosa's net debt at the beginning of 2015 was $3.119 billion. Of the debt, 90% is denominated in dollars, the company said in a presentation on its website. In 2016 Alrosa should repay loans for $435 million and in 2017, for $1.09 billion. In 2018, the company, according to an agreement with VTB , has postponed the repayment of a loan from this bank amounting to $600 million, the deadline for which ran out last year.
"Free cash flow in 2014 increased by 2.6 times year-on-year and amounted to 44.8 billion rubles as the result of the ruble depreciation against the US dollar, higher operating profit and reduced capital expenditures," Alrosa said. The net debt to EBITDA ratio for last year was 1.9x.
