Article by PAP Biznes
Listed coking coal miner JSW is in the midst of talks with coal miner Prairie Mining regarding potential investment in Prairie assets and might seek USD financing for capex projects related to Prairie assets if a positive decision is taken in July, CEO Daniel Ozon told PAP.
“Some talks with Prairie Mining have been conducted, further ones are scheduled for June,” Ozon said. “I would like us to make some decisions in July.”
“Those assets would generate for us 2-2.5 mln tons of coal annually,” he said.
JSW options include taking over Prairie Mining as a whole, or particular assets, because mining licenses belong to subsidiaries, not the firm itself. While all the assets are in play, the Lubelskie region projects are “remote, complicated.”
To finance the Prairie-related spending, JSW could seek financing on the US market, possibly a USD 500 mln benchmark bond issue, but first needs to complete the process of securing a debt rating.
“We could finance the transaction itself with cash, but further capex for example for a new shaft and the processing plant could be estimated at several billion zloty,” the CEO said.
“If we finish process with [rating] agencies … and the situation on the market is still good, then one can imagine that after H1 results we could go out with an issue of possibly benchmark size of some USD 500 mln,” he said.
Elsewhere in financing, JSW is in advanced talks with Polish banks on PLN 1 bln in refinancing.
‘We are quite advanced with closing deals with banks on refinancing,” the official said. “We are targeting neighborhood PLN 1 bln, we are talking here about a consortial loan.”