GFG Alliance’s chief executive officer, Sanjeev Gupta, is considering a deal with commodity trader and miner Glencore to refinance the debt involved in its aluminum business in Europe.
According to media reports on Jul 2, Gupta has been in discussion with Robin Scheiner, plant manager for Glencore’s Belgian aluminum plant regarding a loan from Glencore. The Alvance facility’s assets include the Dunkirk smelter and Duffel rolling mill having debts worth about $319mn. All of this comes after Greensill Capital, one of GFG’s majority lenders pulled out the company’s credit line.
The Dunkirk smelter was acquired from Rio Tinto in 2018, at a cost of $500mn, and can produce around 280,000mt of aluminum metal per year. The Duffel rolling mill was bought from Novelis last year and can produce 250,000mt in rolled units, which includes around 104,000mt of raw material sourced from aluminum scrap.