Business In Cameroon28 Jan 2021 12:23
Business in Cameroon) - Concessionaire of the public electricity service in Cameroon until 2031, Eneo, a company controlled by the British investment fund Actis, successfully closed, on December 31, 2020, a loan of 100 billion of FCFA from a pool made up of eight local banks and led by Citibank, we learn from an authorized source. The characteristics of the operation were not disclosed, however, as were the other banks that subscribed to it.
Authorized by the Board of Directors of this company since January 2020, the operation was conditioned by the improvement of the borrower profile of Eneo, which was then facing cash flow pressures, themselves consecutive to the non-payment of invoices. by its largest consumers, including the State and its branches.
As a result, the electricity company itself was no longer able to honor its commitments to its service providers, in particular independent producers of electrical energy and suppliers of fuel for power stations. At the end of 2019, these partners claimed from Eneo unpaid debts of CFAF 155 billion, underlines the company in its 2019 activity report.
In this context, "? the financial market needed to be reassured about Eneo's ability to meet the maturities of this loan, and about regular payments from the State of Cameroon," explained the Director General (DG ) of Eneo, Éric Mansuy, in a recent interview with Business in Cameroon .
Help from the state
As desired by the CEO of Eneo, the financial market will be reassured from June 2020, thanks to a disbursement of FCFA 45 billion made by the State of Cameroon, as an advance on its overdue invoices at the service concessionaire. public electricity. A second tranche of around 30 billion FCFA will also be announced.
"Thanks to the collection of 45 billion FCFA and the regular payment of government bills over the first five months of the year, negotiations on the loan of 100 billion FCFA have truly been relaunched ?", underlined the CEO of Eneo in the aforementioned interview.
“The settlement of these arrears and other indicators confirms that there is a real commitment from the government to support Eneo. When you combine this with the transformation of corporate governance put in place by Actis, its reference shareholder, for us, it is a solid operation ”, already explained a banker at the time of the preparation of the loan. 'Eneo.
This loan will be used, reveals the electricity company in a recent Newsletter, to repay " ?the balance of a medium-term loan" contracted by Eneo and to finance the company's investments, particularly in the areas of production and the distribution. It should allow Eneo to regain its breath from the current year 2021, after a year 2019 characterized by a difficult financial situation, and a year 2020 marked by the seal of the coronavirus.
https://www.investiraucameroun.com/energie/2801-15888-conforte-par-les-paiements-de-l-etat-l-electricien-eneo-leve-100-milliards-de-fcfa-aupres-de-huit-banqu