VEB to credit BEMO 50 bln rubles secured by assets and shares
MOSCOW. July 29 (Interfax) - The supervisory board at Vnesheconombank (VEB) has approved the extension of 50 billion rubles for the completion of the Boguchany Energy & Metallurgical Association (BEMO), Russian aluminum smelter RusAl said.
To finish the construction of Boguchany Hydropower Plant , VEB is opening OJSC Boguchany Hydropower Plant a credit line of 28.1 billion rubles for a term of sixteen years. CJSC Boguchany Aluminum Plant will receive a credit of worth 21.9 billion rubles for fourteen years in U.S. dollars.
"The approved credits, and also the funding provided by project investors in 2010 will fully cover the expenses for building [Boguchany Hydropower Plant] and the first [Boguchany Aluminum Plant] start-up complex," the RusAl statement says.
These credits are being extended on the principles of project financing without using the project investors' balance. Security for the credits will be the assets and shares of the project companies. The funds will start being release after credit documents are signed, the necessary corporate go-aheads are issued, and coordination with RusAl creditors achieved.
The first Boguchany Aluminum Plant start-up complex (capacity - 147,000 tonnes/year) is about 30% ready now. Construction work is planned to resume in September. It should be launched in 2013. The company had earlier planned to put the first production line into operation in the autumn of 2011.
The BEMO project, which is being implemented jointly with OJSC RusHydro , involves the building of a hydropower plant (capacity - 3,000 mWt/year) and aluminum plant (588,000 tonnes/year). The plan is for the former to reach full capacity in 2012, after the first line of three hydro-generators is commissioned this coming December. RusAl has agreed with its creditors that it can put roughly $300 million of its own money into the plant's completion. The company said recently that it has creditor permission to put its own funds into the completion of Boguchany Aluminum Plant, but if project financing is received, the monies could be put into the construction of Taishet Aluminum Plant, the price tag on which has not been revealed.