10th Jan 2019 10:48
LONDON (Alliance News) - Rurelec PLC on Thursday announced that a major overhaul of the 136 megawatt southern Patagonian power plant in Argentina has completed and loan repayments from unit Energia del Sur SA will recommence.
Shares in Rurelec, which owns and develops power generation facilities, were up 29% at 0.90 pence on Thursday. Rurelec owns 50% of Energia del Sur, which in turn owns 100% of the Argentinan power plant.
Energia del Sur's overhaul of the steam turbine is now complete and the plant is "fully operational and available for dispatch". Cost of the overhaul maintenance came to USD6 million and was financed via a loan from Argentina's wholesale electricity market administrator.
In addition, Energia del Sur has USD1.4 million left to repay on its loan from Rurelec Project Finance Ltd. Energia del Sur has said that it will recommence payment of this loan in late January and intends to fully repay the loan in 2019.
Once its loan to Rurelec Project Finance has been repaid, Energia del Sur will then being repaying its other debts owed to Rurelec and to Patagonia Energy Ltd.
Rurelec has GBP1.2 million worth of temporary loan facilities with Bridge Properties (Arena Central) Ltd, and made a GBP400,000 interest payment in late December and has no interest outstanding on the loan.
The Bridge Properties loans are due June 30 and Rurelec expects to resume capital repayments "in the first few months of 2019".
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