Altius Minerals amended its existing credit facility to refinance its existing term and revolver debt. Bank of Nova Scotia and ING Capital led the refinancing, with TD Bank and Export Development Canada participating.
The current debt balance outstanding of $125 million will be transferred to a new term facility with a maturity date of June 2023. The company will also gain access to an additional $100 million revolver facility.
Concurrent with the refinancing, Altius entered into a floating-to-fixed interest rate swap to lock in the interest rate on $100 million of the term facility. The funds represent the portion of the term facility expected to be repaid through regular principal repayments of $5 million per quarter over the five-year term, although additional repayments can be made at any time with no penalty.
Altius expects the interest rate on the fixed portion of the debt to be approximately 5.45% per annum during the full term of the loan, with the remaining $25 million and the revolving facility initially carrying a 4.67% interest rate that will change in accordance with market interest rates.
Altius CFO Ben Lewis commented, “We are pleased to continue the strong relationship that has been developed with our lending group. The extension and expansion of our credit facility is reflective of the progress that has been made in strengthening the scale, asset life and commodity level diversity of our business. We are also pleased to introduce greater certainty to our debt service costs by choosing to lock in the majority of our interest rate exposure.”
Altius directly and indirectly holds diversified royalties and streams that generate revenue from 15 operating mines. These are located in Canada and Brazil and produce copper, zinc, nickel, cobalt, iron ore, potash and thermal and metallurgical coal.
