Alba closes loan facility for its Line 6 Expansion Project

Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) has successfully closed by the end of 2018 the final instalment of the 2nd tranche in respect of the financing of its Line 6 Expansion Project. The loan facilities consisting of US$136 million and EUR90 million are used to finance the provision of equipment for Alba’s Line 6 Expansion Project.

The facilities are made-up of US$136 million Export Development Canada (“EDC”) supported-facility with 10-year tenure; and EUR90 million Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)/Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) supported-facilities comprising two contract loans, with 10-year and six-year tenure.

Alba’s Chairman of Board of Directors, Shaikh Daij Bin Salman Bin Daij Al Khalifa said: “This is another concrete highlight for us and a step closer towards transforming our vision into reality with the safe start-up of Line 6.

 We are also truly thankful to receive further support from our banking partners in the ECA supported-facilities.”

The Mandated Lead Arranger for the EDC covered-facility is Citibank N.A. (Canada Branch), and Citibank N.A. also acted as the Facility Agent for the EDC covered-facility. With respect to the JBIC/NEXI supported-facilities, the Mandated Lead Arranger is BNP Paribas (Tokyo), and BNP Paribas also acted as the Facility Agent for the JBIC/NEXI supported facilities.

“Alba successfully closed a US$1.5 Billion syndicated term-loan facility comprising two tranches: a Conventional Facility & and an Islamic Facility in October 2016; the first tranche of the Export Credit Financing of c. US$700 million for Euler Hermes and SERV-covered facilities was concluded in July 2017; the first part of 2nd tranche of Export Credit Financing of c. EUR204.5 million comprising Bpifrance Assurance Export (“BpiAE”) and the Euler Hermes-covered facilities was concluded in April 2018.​,” it said.