JEDDAH: Ma'aden, the Saudi Arabian Mining Company, and Alcoa announced Tuesday that the Ma'aden Aluminium Company and Ma'aden Rolling Company both of which are owned 74.9 percent by Ma'aden and 25.1 percent by Alcoa have signed bank financing for the Middle East's first fully integrated aluminum smelter and food-grade can-sheet rolling mill in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Sixteen financial institutions, together providing over $1.9 billion, participated in the signing. The financing has been heavily oversubscribed. Engineer Abdullah Busfar, interim President of the smelting and rolling mill companies and Vice President of the Ma'aden Aluminum SBU, said that there had been wide ranging international interest in financing the project. “We have the participation of major Saudi Arabian banks as well as major international banks,” he said. Busfar added that the signing marked the latest in a string of milestones that the project has met successfully under challenging deadlines. “We signed the JV agreement in December last year, broke ground in June this year, met our financing commitments in the same month, and poured first concrete on Oct. 24,” he said. Ken Wisnoski, Alcoa's president of Global Primary Products Growth, said: “We are pleased that financing on very attractive terms.”
