Bolivian Bond Placing

RNS Number : 3838P

Rurelec PLC

24 March 2009

 



Rurelec PLC

('Rurelec' or 'the Company')

Bolivian Bond Placing 

Rurelec's Bolivian 50.01 per cent. owned subsidiary, Empresa Guaracachi SA, confirmed today that it had successfully placed a final tranche of US$19.2 million of bonds, completing its bond placement programme announced in December 2007. The bonds, which are unsecured and which have a twelve year maturity and are rated AA+ by Pacific Credit Ratings, were placed with Bolivian financial institutions by Credibolsa, the brokerage arm of Banco de Credito de Peru.    The annual interest coupon is 9.75% and principal is repaid in three equal installments in years 10, 11 and 12 of the bond's life.

Placement of the first tranche of the bonds in an amount of US$16 million was announced on 3^rd December 2007.  The first placement has a maturity of 10 years and principal is repaid in three equal installments in years 8, 9 and 10 of the bond's life.  The annual fixed interest coupon of this tranche is 8.55%, which will be paid semi-annually.

The bond programme together with the funding received from the regional development bank Corporacion Andina de Fomento (CAF) and the German government's development arm, KfW, also announced on 3^rd December 2007, provides the bulk of the financing for the 96 MW combined cycle expansion project due to enter service before the end of this year. The CAF/KfW loan is for a principal amount of US$ 20 million and is repayable in 8 equal installments, with the first repayment due in February 2011. The average annual interest rate on the loan is 3.04 % over US dollar LIBOR making the current interest rate 5.61%.

Registration of the expansion project with the UNFCC CDM will commence shortly. The Company anticipates completing the registration process prior to commercial operation and is expecting to generate approximately 320,000 CERs per annum once the project commences operations.

For further information, please contact:

Peter Earl
Managing Director                                               Tel. [phone]

Paul Shackleton / Stewart Dick
Daniel Stewart & Company                                  Tel. [phone] 

 

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