Fauji Cement Co Ltd signs Rs37,400m syndicated term loan facilities for expansion

KARACHI: The signing ceremony for credit facilities for path breaking expansions by Fauji Cement Company Limited and Askari Cement Limited was held on Monday. Both the companies are part of the Fauji Group and have been in the forefront of infrastructure development in Pakistan.

The expansions are in line with the Fauji Group’s vision to play a role in the economic development and infrastructure footprint of the nation.

The Syndicated Term Loan facilities of Rs 37,400 million from a banking consortium is led by HBL. Other members of the consortium include Faysal Bank Limited, Bank Alfalah Limited, National Bank of Pakistan, Bank of Punjab, Bank Al-Habib, Askari Bank, MCB Bank Limited, Habib Metropolitan Bank Limited, Bank of Khyber and First Women Bank Limited. The credit facilities extended to both the companies have a tenure of 10 years and also include SBP concessionary finance facilities i.e. TERF & LTFF.

The facilities with a combined project cost of circa Rs 60 billion (including a Debt component of Rs 37.4 billion) will be used by the companies to enhance their combined production capacity to 10 million tons per annum making them the second largest cement producer in the tegion. The expansion projects of FCCL & ACL are situated at DG Khan (Punjab) and Nizampur (KPK) respectively, and will play a significant part in the social uplift of the areas along with job creation.

The signing ceremony was attended by Waqar Malik, MD & CEO – Fauji Foundation Group, Qamar Haris Manzoor, Group CEO FCCL & ACL, Muhammad Aurangzeb, President & CEO – HBL, Arif Usmani, President & CEO – NBP, Atif Bajwa, Director & CEO – BAFL, Atif Riaz Bokhari, President & CEO – AKBL, Mohsin Ali Nathani, President & CEO - HMBL and representatives of BOP, MCB, FBL, BAHL, BOK & FWB on 27th December 2021 in Karachi.

The initiative is one of the largest syndicated financing project in the cement sector by a banking consortium in Pakistan achieved in a record time. HBL is acting as Agent, Investment Agent and mandated Lead Arranger. The expansion projects along with potential merger / amalgamation of both the companies will hoist FCCL as one of the largest cement player in Pakistan. The current expansions in our cement vertical, emerges from Fauji Groups vision to play a key role in national development. The companies form part of the Fauji Group.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021