DUBAI: Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Steel Industries (ESI) obtained loans worth $1.7 billion from banks and a $500 million loan from General Holding Corp (GHC) to finance its expansion, a company statement said on Sunday.
In July, GHC, the parent company of ESI managed to raise the $500 million through HSBC and insurance from SACE, Italy’s state export credit agency, Stephen Pope, chief executive officer at ESI told Reuters.
The $1.7 billion loans were obtained from commercial and Islamic banks, it added.
"Financial close will be achieved later this month [for these loans] when we do the documentation," said Pope.
Emirates Steel’s output capacity is expected to reach 3 million tonnes a year by 2011. The company is looking to boost annual capacity to 6.5 million tonnes by 2013-2014 through expansion and acquisitions.
