Aluworks nears closing in on US$25m turnaround deal with Vedanta Resources

Aluworks announced that they are close to sealing a US$25million strategic investment deal with Vendata Resources, one of the world’s largest natural resources companies with an interest in aluminium and other resources.

“We are talking in a matter of weeks,” Ralph Rossouw, a Director of Vendata Resources told the B&FT on the sidelines of Aluworks’ AGM in Accra, in respect of how close they are to the deal.

“We will resolve the debt issue with SSNIT and VALCO, and then more importantly do value added products. So we are looking at a foil line which is considered a higher value added product…we will then compete far more than the Chinese. We will replace the Chinese market in Ghana as well as in Nigeria. But that can only be done if we do bauxite mining and alumina refining,” Ralph Rossouw said.

“By investing in Aluworks we intend to go into bauxite mining, which we currently do globally. We would then develop alumina refineries in Ghana," he added.

Chairman of the Aluworks Board of Directors, Serth Adjei, told shareholders that the share price for the new investor’s stake in the company is being negotiated, assuring them that it would be one to give them value for money.

To turn around its negative books, Aluworks, which is bogged down by the three-pronged difficulty of capital, market and raw materials, would have to retire a debt of about US$15million dollars, a chunk of which it owes its largest shareholder SSNIT.

The aluminium products manufacturer also owes VALCO, its raw materials provider, close to US$3million, while the energy crisis led to a cutback on electricity supply to VALCO, thereby severely affecting raw materials supply to the former.