DUBAI, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) is looking to potentially refinance up to $6.7 billion of its debt, banking sources told LPC, a fixed income news service that is part of Refinitiv.
EGA, the product of a merger between two state-owned aluminium companies - Dubai Aluminium (Dubal) and Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Aluminium in 2013 - is jointly owned by Abu Dhabi investment fund Mubadala and state company Investment Corporation of Dubai.
Dubal is still an entity within EGA that can borrow money in its own right.
EGA’s debt includes a $4.9 billion seven-year loan, which was fully underwritten by seven banks and signed in March 2016, and a $1.8 billion seven-year loan signed by Dubal in January 2015, according to LPC data.
The new deal will include the refinancing of some or all of the 2016 loan, an amend and extend of some of its existing facilities and potentially some new financing, one banker told LPC.
A second banker said the refinancing will probably be launched in two stages of syndication.
In an emailed statement EGA confirmed that although no decision had yet been made to proceed, the company was talking with its banks.
“We can confirm that EGA is working with some of our core relationship banks to identify opportunities to benefit from the current debt market liquidity to optimise its corporate debt position,” the statement said.
EGA’s $4.9 billion loan included a three-year grace period and a balloon payment of 30 percent on maturity and was fully underwritten in 2016 by senior banks BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD, ING, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Natixis.
In January 2015 Dubal closed a $1.8 billion seven-year loan, the first facility that the company had raised to fund its general business purposes in two decades. It was underwritten by Citigroup, Emirates NBD and Societe Generale and pays 145 basis points over Libor.
Writing by Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Kim Coghill
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