Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) has signed a new credit facility of SEK5 billion ($531 million).

The new facility is a refinancing of the current undrawn credit facility of SEK8 billion ($840 million) that was signed in 2017. The credit facility is primarily a back-up facility that will remain undrawn and serve as a liquidity reserve for the company.

The facility has a maturity of five years containing two extension options of one year each. Participating banks are Svenska Handelsbanken, Danske Bank, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken and Swedbank acting as mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners, with Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken as co-ordinator.

SCA also closed a SEK1 billion ($106 million loan from Nordiska investeringsbanken (NIB) WITH a maturity of 10 years. SCA will use the loan to finance the expansion of production capacity of bleached softwood kraft pulp at the SCA Östrand plant in the municipality of Timrå, Sweden The loan will improve the duration of the maturity profile and will further diversify the funding.

NIB is an international financial institution owned by eight member countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. The Bank finances private and public projects in and outside the member countries. NIB has the highest possible credit rating, AAA/Aaa, with the leading rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.

SCA’s business is the forest, Europe’s largest private forest holding. Around this unique resource, SCA has built a well-developed value chain based on renewable raw material.