Hindalco lines up USD 5 billion for 3 Greenfield projects

　　Hindalco Industries plans to invest USD 5 billion in its three Greenfield projects that include Mahan Aluminium, Aditya Aluminium and Utkal Alumina.

　　The Aditya Birla group flagship has already done financial closure for two of these projects and the company is planning to rise around USD 2 billion debt for the Aditya Aluminium project.

　　Mr Kumar Mangalam Birla chairman of Hindalco Industries said that “Our greenfield projects Mahan Aluminium, Aditya Aluminium and Utkal Alumina are at an advance stage of execution with a capital outlay of USD 5 billion. There has been a delay in execution of these projects due to environmental issues and delay in approvals.”

　　The Mahan Aluminium project based in Madhya Pradesh is an aluminium smelter cum power plant of 359 kilo tonne per annum and 900 MW captive thermal power plant. Aditya alumina and aluminium project is Greenfield integrated aluminium complex. It includes 4.2 million tonnes per annum bauxite mine, 1.5 million tonnes per annum alumina refinery at Kansariguda and 359 kilo tonne per annum smelter at Lapanga. The refinery is expected to produce 2 million tonne per annum of alumina within 3 years of its start.

　　Mr Birla said that the company has already closed financial transactions in excess of USD 7 billion including the financial closure of Utkal Alumina and Mahan Aluminium projects. It has earmarked capital expenditure of INR 10,000 crore in 2011 to 2012.

　　He said that once all the projects are commissioned, the company would have an aluminium capacity of 1.7 million tonnes with 6 million tonnes alumina refining capacity. We are on the threshold of significantly increasing our alumina refining and aluminium smelting capacity. Revenues and earnings before interest taxes and depreciation stream from these projects would begin with the projects going on stream. The timely commissioning of these projects is a key to our future profitability.

　　Mr Sunirmal Talukdar CFO Hindalco said that “We will not raise the USD 2 billion required for the Aditya Aluminium project immediately, as the market is choppy. But we will raise it during this financial year. At present, the company has USD 1 billion cash in hand. The Mahan Smelter which was expected to be operational in October 2011 has been delayed by around two months and will now come on stream in December. Utkal Alumina has been delayed by almost one-and-a-half years.”