Primary aluminium producer Alro Slatina has concluded the first nine months of this year with 1,248bn ROL (30.3 million euro) net profit, up 25% from the same time last year, due to the increase in prices on the international aluminium market and to the increase in output from the previous year. Nine-month turnover stood at 10,154bn ROL (247 million euros), up 40% from the corresponding period of last year.
“We will see a record output this year. We expect output in the range of 213-215 thousand tonnes this year,” says Peter Braun, country manager for Romania of US trader Marco International, Alro’s majority shareholder. He added he expected next year to be even better as far as Alro was concerned, expecting an output of 235-240 thousand tonnes of primary aluminium. Alro had made 180 thousand tonnes of aluminium last year.
Marco and Conef own 80% in Alro together. The State owns 18% and the remaining 2% are held by small shareholders and are traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
Alro’s was a very controversial privatisation, for which reason it dragged on for almost two years.
Albeit Alro got major aluminium industry players interested, Marco International acquired shares in it through aggressive purchases of stock on the Stock Exchange.
Marco later gained control of Alro by a share capital increase. As soon as it took over Alro, Marco bought Alprom Slatina, a company that processes the aluminium made by Alro, for which it has expansion plans.
One tonne of aluminium was trading for $1,815 on the London Metal Exchange as of October 21, 2004, compared with approximately $1,500 early in the year or $1,350 back in 2002 when the Americans acquired majority in Alro.
The aluminium maker and its majority shareholder are getting ready to take out two syndicated loans worth $105 million from the international markets.
Sources close to the company were saying that most of the money would be used to refinance the credits taken out by Marco two years to acquire control of Alro two years ago.
The rest of the loan is to be used to continue the expansion of Alro’s production capacity.
Alro and Marco own more than 90% in Aluminium processor Alprom Slatina. Alro and Alprom are to complete a merger process in the next few months, which is due to create an integrated aluminium production and processing company. Beyond the legal issues, the two companies are already integrated operations-wise.
“Alro and Alprom’s operational integration is done. The legal merger is what remains to be done,” Peter Braun says.
vlad.nicolaescu@zf.ro