The credit line aims to sustain ALRO’s strategy to develop products portfolio with high and very high value-added products for sophisticated industries and to continue the Company’s plans to implement state of the art technologies to reach a climate neutrality, in line with the latest developments in this area.
The banks syndicate included Unicredit Bank, OTP Bank Romania, EximBank, ING Bank Bucharest Branch, Raiffeisen Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo Romania, CEC Bank, Banca Transilvania, Garanti Bank, the International Bank for Economic Cooperation. It was legally advised by Allen & Overy (Attila Csongrady, Counsel and Peter Redo, Senior Associate) and Radu Tărăcilă Pădurari Retevoescu SCA (Victor Pădurari, Partner, Andreea Burtoiu, Counsel, Lia Ilie, Associate and Andrea Stoiciu, Associate).
In its turn, ALRO was legally advised in this transaction by Simmons & Simmons (Corinne Noel, Of Counsel, with the support from Andrew Petry, Partner) and Zamfirescu Racoți Vasile & Partners (Ioana Racoți, Senior Partner, Elena Iacob, Partner and Oana Dragomir, Senior Associate).
“This year we faced a new economic paradigm that impacted the entire international economy and forced us to implement a swift and complex anti-crisis programme that showed very good results and allowed us to remain competitive in a very tough international market. The extension of the credit facility, coordinated by EximBank and including very reputable and strong financial institutions, is yet another proof of ALRO’s stability and determination in running long-term development programme that will ensure the business continuity despite the change in the economic environment,” stated Marian Nastase, Chairman of ALRO’s Board of Directors.
Alro Group reported a turnover of RON1.9 billion in January-September 2020, down 10% on the year, and a net profit of RON273 million, compared with a loss of RON23 million in the same period of 2019. Its operating profit (EBIT) grew to RON355 million in the first nine months of 2020, from RON126 million in the year-earlier period, as a result of Romanian authorities implementing the EU-ETS compensation scheme based on a EU decision and receiving subsidies under the form of a compensation for emission costs indirectly covered by the Group in 2019.
The decrease in sales was due to unfavorable market conditions and the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic which affected the aluminium industry.
Alro Slatina is majority owned by Russian group Vimetco (54.2%), Paval Holding, the investment vehicle of Paval brothers, the owners of do-it-yourself retailer Dedeman, owns 23.2% and investment fund Fondul Proprietatea owns 10.2%.