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AFRIcA FocUs

Kogi shoots for five stars

ogi Iron Ltd’s Agbaja cast steel pro- awaiting Kogi if $US8 million can be curity of debt,” Turvey said.
Kject in Nigeria has been endorsed by raised to complete the Agbaja BFS. On the impact of COVID-19, Turvey
major European funds manager Torridon Speaking to Paydirt recently, Kogi said the company was aware of its re-
Investments Management & Research. managing director David Turvey said sponsibilities.
Torridon has over $1 billion of re- BFS financing could be completed by the “We still have people on the ground,
sources assets under management and end of the year, subject to no further slide the plateau which has the resource [indi-
in a recent independent business case in equity market conditions brought on by cated and inferred 586mt @ 43.1% iron
evaluation of Kogi, head of trading and COVID-19. in-situ] has no cases of COVID. We are
research, chief economist Rába Zoltán Adapting to the current environment, very mindful of that and we restrict our
Tamás issued an investment grade of Kogi has updated its strategy for Agbaja activities going up and down the hill a
four stars. and detailed a staged approach to the bit.”
“Nigeria is definitely a risky country steel billet plant to produce 250,000 tpa Turvey said there was a community
to do business, but not overly so. The in Phase 1. about 20km from the Agbaja resource
appeal of the project is just – I assume While the staged funding plan sees that was supportive of the project and
– too attractive to too many local play- an easing into steel billet production, the pushing for development of a big mine.
ers to derail it. I would say: it is even in plant’s design and technical scope will al- “We are walking them through the re-
the national interest to succeed,” Zoltán low for expansion to the original 750,000 quirement to do the feasibility study and
Tamás said. tpa targeted output. explaining that we are using other peo-
“I still cannot give a full five-star as “By reducing the scale it makes a lot of ple’s money to do that. I like that com-
there is no final BFS picture on the pro- sense for future debt providers. We’ve al- munity engagement and if you don’t have
ject economics. And capex financing is ready had feedback from the ECA [Eco- the community on side everything will be
still an issue to resolve. So, it is a prom- nomic Consulting Associates] in the UK meaningless and you won’t be able to
ising project in the making and in an saying that it makes sense even though operate effectively,” Turvey said.
advanced development stage. And this they like giving you big amounts of debt. While keeping community relation-
is what the four stars express. Nothing They don’t necessarily see that you have ships tight and providing whatever as-
less, nothing more.” leverage on the coupon price or time. surances it can during the uncertain
A potential five-star rating could be They will look at the macroeconomic se- times of COVID-19 is paramount, Kogi

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