Umicore secures financing for Poland project

Belgium-based Umicore says it has secured a €125 million ($140 million) loan agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to partially finance its electric vehicle battery cells cathode materials plant in Nysa, Poland. Those battery cells typically consist of cobalt and other metals with the majority of their refining output in China.

In a 2019 interview with the Financial Times, Umicore CEO Marc Grynberg said the Polish plant and others that could follow it will help build a “complete and sustainable value chain” for electric vehicle battery recycling and cell production in Europe. Added Grynberg, “Without recycling, mass electrification [of passenger vehicles] will not work.”

Umicore also released an update saying that in addition to the EIB loan, it had “new committed loans from core relationship banks,” creating credit lines that were largely “undrawn” upon.

Additionally, the firm says it is offering “senior unsecured convertible bonds due 2025, under the company’s authorized capital, for an aggregate principal amount of €500 million ($566 million).” Umicore says those proceeds will be used for what it calls general corporate purposes and to fund its strategic developments in the areas of clean mobility materials and recycling. 

The company said its production of catalysts and battery materials had started declining as COVID-19-related shutdowns took place in Asia, Europe and the Americas. As of early June, automotive “OEMs have gradually resumed production at their assembly lines [and] Umicore has restarted its catalyst production accordingly.”

Umicore adds it “continues to assume that global car production will decline by approximately 25 percent this year.”

Precious and minor metals recycling has been a bright spot, says the firm. “The Recycling operations continue to be supported by very good supply and trading conditions and high metal prices, in particular rhodium,” states Umicore. “The performance in Recycling in the first half of the year is expected to be higher than market expectations and higher than assumed at the end of April.”

Adds the metals refining and recycling firm, “While benefiting Recycling earnings, the prevailing high precious metal price—and platinum group metal prices in particular—resulted, as anticipated, in an increase in working capital and net financial debt year to date.”