Part of the bank financing agreement was signed by the Maaden Aluminium Company and Maaden Rolling Company, both of which are co-owned by Maaden and Alcoa.
Sixteen financial institutions providing over $1.9 billion (SR7.1 billion) participated in the signing ceremony that took place at the Maaden headquarters in the capital on Tuesday.
“We have the participation of major Saudi Arabian banks as well as major international banks,” said Abdullah Busfar, interim president of the smelting and rolling mill companies and vice president of the Maaden Aluminum Smelter Unit, adding that there had been wide ranging international interest in financing the project.
Busfar added that the signing marked the latest in a string of milestones that the project has met successfully under challenging deadlines.
“We signed the JV agreement in December last year, broke ground in June this year, met our financing commitments in the same month, and poured first concrete on Oct. 24, just 10 months after signing the JV. We are well and truly on our way,” he said.
“We are pleased that financing on very attractive terms for the smelter and the rolling mill was achieved swiftly during a challenging period in the global financial markets,” said Ken Wisnoski, Alcoa’s president of Global Primary Products Growth.
“We are gratified by the significant oversubscription, which reflects the bank groups’ strong support for this project. It echoes our own confidence in the project’s potential to become the preeminent aluminum manufacturing complex in the Middle East.”
The companies will shortly commence the financing process for the mine and refinery, which constitutes the second phase of the $10.8 billion Maaden/Alcoa joint venture.
Maaden was established as a Saudi Arabian joint stock company in March 1997 to facilitate the development of Saudi Arabia’s non-petroleum mineral resources and to diversify the Kingdom’s economy away from the petroleum and petrochemical sectors.
In July 2008, Maaden offered 50 percent of the company’s shares for subscription in a successful SR9.25 billion IPO (initial public offering).
Alcoa is the world’s leading producer of aluminum. In addition to inventing the modern-day aluminum industry, Alcoa innovation has been behind major milestones in the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction, commercial transportation, consumer electronics and industrial markets over the past 120 years.
