VTB Group agrees to possible financing for Metafrax projects
PERM. Oct 11 (Interfax) - OJSC Metafrax , based in the Perm territory, has struck an agreement with VTB Group on the possibility of financing for the company's short-term investment projects, Metafrax said in a press release.
In particular, VTB has affirmed its willingness to finance exports of European equipment to Metafrax. It is also considering financing Metafrax's major projects worth $500-$600 million.
Metafrax is planning to complete its purchase of Finnish company Dynea Chemicals Oy's stakes in resin producing joint ventures LLC MetaDynea (Perm territory) and LLC Karbodin (Moscow region) by the end of October, after which it intends to merge both assets and invest some 1 billion rubles in their development in 2013-2014.
In addition, Metafrax has scrapped plans to buy a urea production enterprise and is leaning towards building a new facility on that same site. It has estimated investments in the construction of such a unit, with capacity of 600,000 tonnes of urea, at 700 million euro. At present the company is negotiating with banks to attract financing. As an alternative to bank loans, Metafrax is considering the possibility of an initial public offering (IPO).
Besides that, Metafrax will earmark 50-60 million euro for the modernization of its methanol unit, a project which it tentatively plans to implement by 2015-2016. As a result of the modernization, the unit will see its capacity expand by 10% to 1.1 million tonnes of methanol a year.
Metafrax is one of the largest methanol and formalin producers in Russia.
