Corus secures funding for £250m restructure

Corus's £250m UK restructuring programme announced in April, can now go ahead as the company has today (Friday) secured a new banking facility worth 1.2bn Euros.

Replacing the existing facility that was due to expire at the end of January 2004, the new amortising syndicated facility has a final maturity date of 30 June 2006, and provides committed bank financing for Corus' working capital requirements.

The troubled steel giant unveiled a host of proposals, dependent on the company securing adequate funding, at its AGM in April this year.

The main thrust of the proposals would see all steelmaking in the UK being concentrated at three sites: flat products at Port Talbot in south Wales; long products at Scunthorpe in north Lincolnshire; and engineering steels at Rotherham in South Yorkshire.

Approximately 1,150 jobs would be lost by these proposals and the group capacity would be reduced to 10.5m tonnes a year from 12.5m tonnes.

"Taking account of the new facility, together with the Group's existing bonds and debentures, total committed borrowing facilities available to the Group now amount to around £1.9bn," said a Corus statement.

The Group's interim results are due to be released on 24 September 2003.