Displaying items by tag: Loan

Egypt: The Arabian Cement Company (ACC) has successfully rescheduled a US$30.9m loan from the National Bank of Egypt. The loan will now be paid in quarterly instalments to mid-2021, according to the Daily News Egypt newspaper. The borrowing was originally taken out to expand its production faculties.

Saudi Arabia: Umm Al Qura Cement Company has signed an Islamic financing agreement with Riyad Bank to secure a US$13.3m loan. The investment will be used to finance the working capital of the company and to pay for capital purchases. The cement producer produces both Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and white cement from its 1.98Mt/yr plant at Taif.

Lithuania: Akmenes Cementas has managed to strike a deal with its creditors over the extension of a loan it took out in 2007. The cement producer has been in talks with various banks since mid-2016 to postpone the loan settlement deadline by three years, according to the Baltic Business Daily. However, Akmenes Cementas went to court and asked for an obligation for the banks to comply with the loan payment schedule signed in May 2017. Legal action was dropped in late September 2017 when the banks agreed to continue crediting the company under a deal. The loan currently stands at Euro53m.

Lithuania: Akmenės Cementas is fighting a legal battle over the repayment of a Euro40m loan it took out in 2007. The cement producer started negotiating in September 2016 with its creditors to have the repayment deferred by three years, according to the Baltic Business Daily. However the deal was blocked by the Baltijos Kredito Sprendimai, which inherited the portfolio of the bankrupt bank Snoras. On 15 June 2017 the Vilnius Regional Court temporarily banned Akmenės Cementas’ six creditors from taking loan repayments from its accounts with the exception of interest payments.

Akmenes Cementas built a new Euro110m production line in late 2014. The company used its own funds and the loan to finance the project.

Guinea: Diamond Cement Guinea has been awarded a US$22.5m loan from the African Development Bank (AFDB) to build a 0.5Mt/yr cement grinding plant at Souguta. Overall the AFDB has pledged around US$37.5m for the project to the cement producer’s owner Wacem, according to African Manager financial news service. The AFDB previously part-financed a 0.5Mt/yr plant in Conakry with a value of US$15m.

Egypt: Egyptian Cement has started negotiations to secure a US$221m loan to finance the construction of its first cement plant in Sohag province. The cement division of Egyptian Group is dealing with a consortium comprising the National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, CIB and Arab African International Bank, according to the Al Mal newspaper. The total cost of the new 2Mt/yr plant is estimated at US$276m. Egyptian Group’s chief executive officer Ahmed Abu Hashima set up Egyptian Steel in 2010.

Kazakhstan: Karaganda cement plant has secured a US$3m loan from VTB Bank Kazakhstan to finance production growth at the unit. The Bank and Karcement JSC, which owns the cement plant, signed a corresponding agreement within the state program aimed at the development of domestic producers, according to the Trend News Agency. The plant has a production capacity of 3.6Mt/yr and it had been in operation since 1953.

China: China National Building Material Company (CNBM) has entered into an agreement with the Bank of Communications for finance of around US$1.43bn in the form of direct loans, debt-to-equity conversion and/or capital injection into members of the group. The finance will be used to improve the group’s asset-debt structure, improve production operations and pay for upgrades.

India: Burnpur Cement has blamed an ‘irregular’ non-payment to its lenders on demonetisation and a depressed market. It added that it was discussing the matter with its lenders, including the option of restructuring the debt. The cement producer operates two plants in the east of the country.

Slovenia: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has awarded Salonit Anhovo (Salonit) a Euro15m loan to be used for energy and resource efficiency improvements and to restructure the company’s balance sheet. The building materials producer has a substitution rate of 64% for alternative fuels at its Anhovo cement plant. The EBRD loan will be invested to increase this ratio further to improve the company’s profitability and reduce CO₂ emissions. A precondition for increasing the ratio of alternative fuels is the installation of state-of-the-art equipment. The investment will also have a beneficial effect on operational costs, which are expected to decline thanks to the adjusted fuel ratios.