ATOME announced Since the last update issued on 7 April 2025, steady progress continues to be made towards Final Investment Decision ("FID") on the Villeta 145MW green fertiliser project and full financial close: After the signing of the Engineering, Procurement and Construction ("EPC") contract, Casale and the Company are working closely, together with suppliers of long lead items, with off site engineering work continuing in order to ensure construction timelines are met; The definitive offtake contract with the leading international fertiliser company, Yara International, is in the final stages of discussion with signing now targeted by the end of June; In depth positive discussions are taking place between the Company, Hy24, Villeta's anchor equity investor, and a select number of co-investors to form the equity club component of the financing; In April, a positive and constructive site visit to Paraguay took place with a total of some 35 people in the delegation comprising representatives from five of the multi-lateral funding institutions as well as equity providers. Meetings took place with representatives of Government, ANDE (the national power supplier), the communities, as well as key project partners including Casale. The visits generated very positive results amongst all those who attended and was a key item in the necessary due diligence process for the project finance; and As a result of ATOME's clear industry leadership in green fertliser, the Company has seen a step up in the number of projects being presented to ATOME to consider.
This is reflective of ATOME's reputation and is of note when ATOME considers its growing pipeline of potential projects, supplemented by the exciting new power division and its prospects. The nature of project finance means that logistics and timing are of the essence and whilst target for FID remains first part of mid-summer, taking into account the wide-spread of holidays in the various continents and the numbers of parties involved, an end September close would be a more prudent target. The overarching element is that ATOME's Board confidence is high for a closing and start of construction soon with a significant step up in developments.