GAC receives PFI’s “Multilateral Deal of the Year” award for its ground-breaking project financing

Guinea Alumina Corporation has been honoured with the Project Finance International’s prestigious global “Multilateral Deal of the Year” award for its ground-breaking project financing.  The news came after EGA officially announced the receipt of the award by both EGA and GAC’s Management at PFI’s annual awards ceremony in London.

GAC in May 2019 closed a US$750 million financing deal to fund the country’s one of the biggest-ever Greenfield mining projects. The loan was for 12 to 14 years tenor funded by International Finance Corporation, The African Development Bank, Export Development Canada, PIDG Ltd’s company The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, Societe Generale, ING Bank, Natixis, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Emirates NBD and Mashreq Bank.

So, this was the first loan in which multilateral institutions and international commercial banks participated together. GAC could secure this financing deal after putting a persistent effort in the company’s technical, commercial, environmental, and social commitments and performance.

GAC has now completed the development of bauxite mine and associated export facilities in Guinea. In August 2019, it began exporting as well, and by January 2020 reached one million tonnes of export volume.

On receiving the prestigious award, EGA’s Chief Executive Officer Abdulnasser Bin Kalban said: “More than 800 of the world’s most senior project finance professionals honoured GAC at this year’s PFI Awards because this project financing was a landmark in the African mining industry. Securing this project financing was possible because of the technical and commercial robustness of the GAC project, as well as GAC’s focus on social and environmental responsibility.”

EGA developed the GAC project primarily for expanding its operations into upstream aluminium, so that the UAE aluminium industry is able to secure raw material at competitive prices.