Sasol raises funds with bond offering

The South African chemicals company hopes to refinance its debt and fund wider commercial activities by raising USD 750 million from the bonds market, a deal on which it was supported by a US law firm.
South African chemicals company Sasol has launched a USD 750 million bond offering, said Iclg.

The Johannesburg-headquartered company said the bonds, due to mature in 2027, would be used for “general corporate purposes including, but not limited to, the refinancing of debt”. The bonds were issued on 8 November by Sasol’s subsidiary Sasol Financing USA, and are expected to be made available for trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange 30 days after the closing date. They will be convertible into shares in Sasol or cash.

Co-ordinator for the offering was BofA Securities, while the book-runners were Citigroup, JP Morgan and BofA Securities. Co-lead managers were Mizuho, MUFG and SMBC Nikko.

Sasol was represented on the offering by a mostly London-based team from New York-headquartered law firm Shearman & Sterling, led by partners Trevor Ingram and James Duncan, with support from Washington, DC, tax partner Kristen Garry and an associate in New York.

As per MRC, Sasol Chemicals will lease land adjacent to its plant to Hamburger Energiewerke, Hamburg’s municipal utility, which plans to build the facility by the end of 2024. When fully operational in 2025, the plant will supply at least 70,000 megawatt hours of steam to Sasol each year, enabling the company to reduce its CO2 emissions from the plant by approximately 13,000 metric tons annually. In addition to green steam, the plant will produce more than 90,000 megawatt hours of sustainable electricity annually.

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Saudi Aramco Base Oil Co., a unit of the state-owned oil producer, has received regulatory approval for an initial public offering in Riyadh, as the world’s biggest crude producer looks to list some of its subsidiaries, said Bloomberg.

The IPO will consist of the sale of 50 million shares -- a 29.7% stake -- in the company, Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority said Thursday. The unit, also known as Luberef, makes base oils used in lubricants for motor vehicles, ships and industrial machinery.

Saudi Aramco this month reported its second-highest earnings as a listed company, although its downstream unit, responsible for refining, chemicals and fuel distribution, made a pretax loss of USD1.1 billion, versus almost USD4 billion in profits a year earlier.

Jadwa, which is expected to sell a stake in the IPO, had acquired its Luberef holding in 2007 from Exxon Mobil Corp. Exxon had originally invested in the refinery in 1978.

As per MRC, Saudi Aramco said it plans to invest in a USD7 B project to produce petrochemicals from crude oil at its South Korean affiliate S-Oil Corp's refining complex in the port city of Ulsan. The project, named Shaheen, is the Saudi company's biggest investment in South Korea and will mark the first commercial use of Aramco and Lummus technology to produce chemicals from crude, Aramco said in a statement.
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Nils Andersen will step down as Chair and member of the Supervisory Board of AkzoNobel to accept a new board position outside of the company, sai the company.

Commenting on the announcement, Byron Grote, Deputy Chair of the Supervisory Board, said: “We congratulate Nils Andersen on his new opportunity and at the same time we deeply regret to see him go. Nils stepped into the role of Chair of the Supervisory Board during a very turbulent time. His extensive international experience in different industries and his broad business insight have helped guide AkzoNobel’s transformation into a frontrunner in the paints and coatings industry. The company’s relationship with its shareholders and other stakeholders significantly improved under his leadership.”

Nils Andersen will step down at the Annual General meeting to be held in April 2023. The Supervisory Board will announce a successor, to be nominated for appointment at the next AGM, in due course.

We remind, AkzoNobel has become the global refinish partner for new energy vehicle manufacturer BYD Auto Sales Company Ltd. – currently the world’s leading seller of electric vehicles. The company has been a recommended supplier of vehicle refinish products and services to BYD in China since 2017. The new deal means that agreement will continue, while extending the partnership to serve BYD’s bodyshops and approved repairer networks worldwide.

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Technip Energies N.V. announces that the liquidity agreement entered into with Kepler Cheuvreux dated July 9, 2021, has been suspended as of November 22, 2022, pending renewal of the resolution of the general meeting of shareholders authorizing share buybacks, said the company.

The number of shares and amount allocated as of November 22, 2022, close of trading, to the Liquidity Contract was 8,900 shares and €9,780,454.34. As a reminder, the securities and amounts that were allocated to the Liquidity Agreement as of June 30, 2022, were 207,823 shares and EUR6,832,747.61.

As per MRC, Shell Catalysts & Technologies and Technip Energies are building on their successful track record of collaboration by strengthening their strategic alliance, which aims to drive cost-effective, large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects by providing a combination of state-of-the-art technology and project management excellence.

Technip Energies is a leading Engineering & Technology company for the energy transition, with leadership positions in LNG, hydrogen and ethylene as well as growing market positions in blue and green hydrogen, sustainable chemistry and CO2 management. The Company benefits from its robust project delivery model supported by an extensive technology, products and services offering.

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Cambi has signed a large contract with Wood, a global leader in consulting and engineering, to supply Sasol with two full-scale thermal hydrolysis process (THP) systems for treating industrial biological sludge at Sasol’s Secunda Operations (SO) in South Africa, said the company.

Sasol and Cambi commenced a commercial trial at SO in 2021 using a small-scale THP unit. Extensive laboratory tests and integration checks demonstrated the feasibility of refunneling industrial biological sludge into Sasol’s coal-to-liquids (CTL) gasification process and identified the optimal process parameters for full-scale application.

“We are excited about this project, as it will enable us to improve our waste management by moving up the waste hierarchy while improving ambient air quality. This will enable Sasol to move away from incineration and, at the same time, to derive syngas from biosludge. We recognise the link between our activities and the need to act responsibly by holistically managing the impacts of our operations through world-class innovation,” said Simon Baloyi, Executive Vice President for Energy Operations and Technology at Sasol.

“Today’s contract is important for Cambi, marking our first full-scale THP project for industrial substrates outside of Norway. The project is unique in the world and introduces a new, sustainable way to process large streams of biosludge. The swift progress from demonstration to full-scale adoption shows that THP makes business sense in many settings and is testimony to Sasol’s solid commitment to reducing carbon emissions. We look forward to seeing the full-scale solution in operation as soon as possible”, remarked Eirik Fadnes, CEO at Cambi.

This innovative project will reroute biosludge from incineration to the gasification process, thereby reducing point source emissions. It will be the world’s first full-scale installation where thermal hydrolysis is used to enable the conversion of biosludge into hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals.

The THP equipment supply contract follows an engineering design project carried out by Cambi earlier this year in close collaboration with Wood, who were commissioned to deliver the full sludge refunnelling solution. For Cambi, the project is ready to go into the manufacturing phase. The two THP systems are scheduled for commissioning in 2024.

We remind, Sasol said it was partnering steelmaker ArcelorMittal South Africa to explore carbon capture technology and steel production using green hydrogen. Green hydrogen, produced from splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, is considered a cleaner energy source for the future, but the technology is still in its infancy and relatively expensive.

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