IFC lends 106 mln euro to Albania's Kurum International for HPP projects

TIRANA (Albania), December 20 (SeeNews) – The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, said it has extended a 106 million euro ($144.6 million) debt facility to finance Albania-based Kurum International’s acquisition and rehabilitation of four recently-privatised hydroelectric power plants (HPPs) in the country.

“The project will help the steel plant improve its competitiveness by lowering its electricity costs, bringing new investors into Albania’s energy sector, and improving the private sector’s access to reliable energy,” IFC said in a press release on Thursday.

The facility will improve competition in the power sector and encourage economic growth, it added.

It includes a 33 million euro loan for IFC’s own account and 73 million euro of financing syndicated to a diverse group of commercial banks and developmental finance institutions. The financing includes B loans of 27 million euro from FMO (Netherlands Development Finance Company), and 14 million euro from Odeabank, the Turkish subsidiary of Lebanon’s Bank Audi. It includes parallel loans of 18 million euro from the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, 7.0 million euro from Albania’s Banka Kombetare Tregtare, and 7.0 million euro from Raiffeisen Bank Albania, which is also acting as the collateral agent.

Kurum International, part of Turkey’s Kurum Holding, is an integrated steel and iron company that operates a mill with a capacity of 510,000 tonnes per annum. It is the only operator of an integrated single iron and steel production plant in the country.

($=0.7332 euro)

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