En+ International public joint stock : Group Metals business attracts 45 billion rouble loan to finance Taishet aluminium smelter construction

RUSAL, the Metals business of En+ Group (LSE: ENPL; MOEX: ENPG), the world's largest producer of low carbon aluminium and independent hydropower, announces it has signed a 45 billion rouble syndicated credit agreement with VTB and Gazprombank. First tranches of the loan are already being utilised. The funds will be used to finance capital expenditures for the completion of the first launch complex at the Taishet aluminium smelter (TaAZ).

According to the loan agreement, VTB bank will provide 30 billion roubles and Gazprombank 15 billion roubles. The term of the agreement is up to 15 years. The full proceeds will be used to finance both the completion of the first TaAZ launch complex and will also partially refinance RUSAL's investments made in 2020.

Oleg Mukhamedshin, Deputy CEO in En+ Group, said:

'The construction of the Taishet aluminium smelter is one of the Company's priority development projects. A significant part of the project's financing has already been provided by En+ Group's Metals business. The proceeds raised under the agreement with VTB bank and Gazprombank will be used to finance the completion of the plant's construction. Once it has been commissioned, the Taishet smelter will become the most environmentally friendly and high-tech enterprise in the global aluminium industry. The launch of the first stage of the Boguchansky aluminium smelter and the construction of TaAZ will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the aluminium production itself and also increase the share of low-carbon products in En+ Group's portfolio'.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a strategic goal of the En+ Group Metals business. To achieve this, the Company is modernizing its facilities, introducing the best available production technologies as well as developing new ones. In addition, the Company is ramping up production of its low carbon aluminium brand ALLOW, which has a carbon footprint several times lower than the industry average.

The Taishet aluminium smelter, which is being built by RUSAL in the Irkutsk Region, will provide jobs for around three thousand people. It will employ the latest and most eco-friendly technologies to increase workplaces automation. Artificial intelligence, data bases and online monitoring will control the machinery, all the way from loading the alumina through to packaging the finished ingots. Aluminium production at TaAZ will be powered by clean and renewable hydropower, which will increase the market share of high-quality low-carbon aluminium products.

The design capacity of the first launch complex will be 428.5 thousand tons of primary aluminium per year. It will start operating in 2021. The Taishet aluminium smelter production will also drive the increasing market demand for aluminium in Russia. The project will produce primary aluminium (so-called small ingots) and alloys in the form of rolling slabs and billets (up to 80% of total output), based on the primary aluminium.