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 Daily
Independent Online.
* Thursday, July 08, 2004.
ALSCON: RUSAL denies report of financial crisis
By Joseph Sesebo
Group Business Editor, Lagos
RUSAL, the Russian aluminium
firm currently in the race to buy Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria
(ALSCON), is flaunting its credentials as eminently qualified to acquire
the Nigerian firm.
The company, in a statement made available
to Daily Independent, said its $15 billion (about N2 trillion)
syndicated facility lead, financed by BNP Paribas of France and supported
by 14 other international banks, gives it enough financial strength to
acquire and turn ALSCON around for the benefit of the national economy.
Details of the deal will be concluded in the next three weeks, the
company affirmed. It, therefore, denied any financial crisis as reported
in some national dailies.
“The inference of a financial crisis is pure fiction. With annual
cash flow of around $4 billion, RUSAL is, financially, among the best
managed enterprises in Russia with a solid reputation among the world's
leading banks,” it said. It added that in March, the firm signed the
largest pre-export syndication facility in Russia's metal sector with
over 15 banks, including the BNP Paribas and Citigroup. The syndication
will be closed in the next three weeks and provides RUSAL with an $800
million (about N107 billion) credit line, the biggest credit line ever
given to a Russian metals company.
“With regard to environmental issues, RUSAL has a very impressive
record of results achieved since the company's foundation in 2000. A
major group-wide modernisation programme has led to major improvements in
environmental control, particularly with regard to the situation referred
to in the 2001 BBC report”.
It said that RUSAL today is in full
compliance with all relevant Russian requirements and, in nearly all
cases, meets international standards. Six RUSAL facilities, the statement
said, have been certified for environmental management (ISO 14001). One
other plant is expected to be certified this year.
The statement further said that the media
failed to contact RUSAL to update their information on these matters, and
resorted even to publishing information, dating from the mid-1990, long
before RUSAL's founding in March 2000.
“The article contains many inaccuracies,
which were not checked prior to publication”, it added. Specifically the claims published
in the article, concerning two outstanding disputes and non-payment, are
totally inaccurate. These have now been settled amicably, as widely
reported in the international media, the statement said.
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