Metinvest Provides Longest-Lasting Financing

Metinvest raised a buyer's credit line of EUR 24.4 million for up to 11 years for its subsidiary Ilyich Steel, a steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine. The loan is covered by an export guarantee of the French Republic issued by Bpifrance Assurance Export, acting as an export credit agency. It was provided by Raiffeisen Bank International, which was the sole creditor. The interest rate on the loan, which matures in July 2030, has been set at the six-month EURIBOR plus margin. The funds will be used to finance the construction of an air separation unit and an evaporation station at the Ilyichevsk Metallurgical Plant. Equipment and engineering services will be procured from Air Liquide Global E&C Solutions France, a world leader in the production and supply of gases, with which an agreement was signed in June 2019.

Metinvest's financing strategy envisages the use of funds covered by the Export Credit Agency as one of the financing instruments for its Technology Strategy until 2030. In 2018-19. The Group has successfully organized three such arrangements from leading financial institutions, guaranteed by European export credit agencies, for a total amount of over 100 million euros.

The aim of the project is to replace the existing technologically obsolete oxygen plants in order to further meet the future needs of Ilyich Steel for air separation products, as steel production capacity will be expanded as part of the Technology Strategy to 2030. The total investment in the construction of the facility will be about USD 78 million. The new air separation and evaporation plant will have a production capacity of 25,000 normal cubic meters per hour of oxygen gas, 1,750 normal cubic meters per hour of liquid oxygen and 35,000 normal cubic meters per hour of nitrogen gas, as well as a storage facility for liquid oxygen. and a gasification station.