VEB to lend up to 6.4 bln rubles for S. Yakutia coal project
MOSCOW. Nov 26 (Interfax) - LLC Kolmar has obtained approval from the supervisory board at Vnesheconombank (VEB) for a credit facility of 6.4 billion rubles to build the Inaglinskoye coal mining complex in southern Yakutia in 2009-2011, Lev Kuznetsov, the company's general director, said at a conference in Moscow.
"I'm hoping we'll finish the construction and be in a position to launch the complex in full by the end of 2011," Kuznetsov said.
The complex will be capable of mining 2.75 million tonnes of coal and producing 2.1 million tonnes of coking coal concentrate per year.
CJSC Yakutia Coals - New Technologies, which is a subsidiary of LLC Kolmar, is carrying the project out. The CJSC's general director, Sergei Nauman, told Interfax at the end of June that Kolmar had applied to VEB and Societe Generale for funding for the project. He said the coal complex would cost an estimated 8.7 billion rubles and that the company had asked the banks for 80% of this. The government of Yakutia has been invited to buy a blocking stake in the company in order to fund the remaining 20%.
Kolmar had offered South Korea's LG up to 40% of the project, but it has not yet received a reply.
According to the SPARK database, Kolmar is owned by the offshore- registered Bixcut Holdings and Magora Trading, and by the BVI-registered Saybrook Capital. It was founded in 2004 by Dmitry Matsul. Lev Kuznetsov, its general director, is one of the owners.
Kolmar's assets include OJSC Neryungriugol (Denisovskaya deep mine) and a 57%-stake in the Erel joint venture besides CJSC Yakutia Coals - New Technologies.