BANJA LUKA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), July 9 (SeeNews) – Bosnian coal mining and energy producing company RiTE Ugljevik [BANJ:RTEU-R-A] is in urgent need of financing and is seeking 10 million marka ($5.7 million/5.1 million euro) in loans, local media reported.
In particular, RiTE Ugljevik has launched a tender for three loans - the first of which, of 4.0 million marka, should be made available to the borrower within 15 days after the signing of the credit agreement, news portal Capital.ba reported on Monday, quoting information from the company.
The second loan of 3.0 million marka should be made available within a month after contracting it and a third loan, also of 3.0 million marka, within 45 days.
According to the media report, the loans are intended to finance the company's liabilities.
RiTE Ugljevik is willing to repay the loans in three years and is ready to pay almost 1.0 million marka in interest fees for the three loans.
Last week, the RiTE Ugljevik complex said its coal-fired power plant has completed 93% of the works on a 180 million marka desulphurisation project financed through a loan from the Japanese government. The new facility will launch test operations in November, while all works on the project should be completed by March 2020.
The new unit will extend the plant's lifespan until 2035 and will help Bosnia meet environmental requirements for EU membership.
However, Bosnia's Serb Republic energy minister Petar Djokic has said that since the loan repayment will require significant efforts on part of RiTE Ugljevik, in the coming month or two the Serb Republic entity will ask the Japanese government to reschedule the repayment, thus giving more time for completion of the financial consolidation of RiTE Ugljevik and its parent company, state-controlled power producer Elektroprivreda RS.
The 300-MW lignite-fired Ugljevik power plant is located in northeastern Bosnia. Its capacity of 300 MW represents a quarter of the total power generation capacity of the Serb Republic, one of Bosnia's constituent entities. The other is the Federation.
(1 euro = 1.95583 marka)