October 11 (SeeNews) - The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) and Garanti Bank Romania said on Thursday they will provide a $25 million (22 million euro) loan to Romania's sole alumina producer, Alum Tulcea [BSE:BBGA].
BSTDB’s financing amounts to $20 million, while the remainder will be provided by Garanti Bank, the two lenders said in a joint press release.
The funding will be mainly used to continue Alum Tulcea’s investments aimed at reducing its carbon footprint, which have begun a decade ago.
"Our financing has a strong development impact through the increase of energy efficiency and sustaining environmental compliance. BSTDB’s loan to Alum will also enhance regional cooperation through exports in response to the increased demand from new markets, including from Turkey," BSTDB Banking vice president, Hasan Demirhan, said in the press release.
Between 2009 and 2016, Alum invested $28 million to upgrade part of the existing equipment, aiming to make the production process more efficient and to comply with the European regulations on environmental protection. To date, Alum’s efforts have reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 57%.
"This new financing obtained from reliable business partners such as Garanti Bank and BSTDB represents a new step forward for continuing our long-term investment programme, focussed on technology upgrading, products portfolio’s diversification, development of new value-added products and safety and environmental protection projects," Alum CEO, Gheorghe Dobra, said.
Alum is the only Romanian producer of calcined alumina and is part of Alro Group. The calcined alumina is used for the production of aluminium and Alum has an alumina refinery with a production capacity of 600,000 tonnes of alumina per year. The alumina produced by the company is supplied both domestically to Alro and internationally. Alum’s shares have been traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, since 1997.
Alum's shares last traded 2.68% lower at 2.9 lei on August 24 on the BVB's alternative segment AeRo.
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine.
Garanti Bank, as part of the financial-banking group Garanti Romania, offers a series of quality products and services for all business segments: retail, SME and corporate. Garanti Bank is held by Turkey’s second largest private bank, Turkiye Garanti Bankasi (TGB).
($ = 0.8654 euro)