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| OCI signs agreement with Abraaj Capital Orascom Construction Industries announced that it has signed an agreement with United Arab Emirates-based Abraaj Capital, the leading regional private equity firm, which has agreed to merge its fertilizer production operations under OCI for a combined cash and shares equity consideration of approximately US$ 1.59 billion. OCI will also assume US$ 1.1 billion in net debt. Abraaj’s activities in the fertilizer and natural gas industries include: 100% controlling stake in Egyptian Fertilizers Company (“EFC”), a free zone company, which includes a 20% stake which is already indirectly held by OCI. EFC has an annual production capacity of 1.27 million tonnes of ammonia / urea which will increase to 1.47 million tonnes by 2010 following the implementation of a debottlenecking project. OCI's current investments in ammonia and nitrogen-based fertilizers include a 30% stake in Egyptian Basic Industries Corporation ("EBIC") in partnership with Kellog Brown & Root ("KBR") and the Government-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Company ("EGPC") which is scheduled to commission a greenfield ammonia production plant with an annual capacity of 0.8 million tonnes during the second half of 2008. A KBR / OCI consortium is constructing the plant which is located in Ain Sokhna adjacent to the Sokhna Port on the Red Sea. KBR is the provider of the process technology. With the completion of the merger, the Fertilizer Group will be well on its way to be ranked among the world's top five producers of nitrogen-based fertilizers and ammonia with a total combined annual capacity of 4.2 million tonnes by 2010. All of OCI's plants are all state-of-the-art production plants with long-term natural gas supply agreements and feature a low production cost profile. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Construction News :: home page |