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Sunday, 11 April 2021

This Carbon Holdings subsidiary is in trouble

Carbon Holdings’ EHC needs to restructure USD 600 mn in debt: Carbon Holdings subsidiary the Egyptian Hydrocarbon Company (EHC) is in talks with the US Export-Import Bank and other unnamed financial institutions to restructure USD 600 mn in debt it took on to finance its mining-grade ammonium nitrate plant, Al Shorouk reports, citing unnamed banking sources. EHC has struggled to keep up with the payment schedule on its debt, according to the sources, and the company is now looking to pay off a portion of the debt by handing the lenders a stake in the company.

What’s the issue? The company took out a USD 385 mn loan from 11 banks back in 2013 to finance the construction of an ammonium nitrate plant in Ain Sokhna, which has since been plagued by difficulties. The plant, which EHC brought online in 2017, is part of Carbon Holdings’ USD 10.6 bn Ain-Sokhna based Tahrir Petrochemicals Complex, which was designed to serve industrial demand in Egypt and abroad for raw materials used in the automotive, building and packaging industries, among others. EHC previously agreed with its lenders to restructure its debts, but has since failed to meet the payment schedule, according to Al Shorouk.

CATCHUP QUICK-

  • Dry-cleaning and laundry app Laverie has raised an undisclosed six-figure investment from tech investor A15, which the startup will use to expand its local operations, with an eye to entering the Gulf market within the coming two years, according to a press release (pdf).

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