Korean plastic antioxidants producer Songwon Industrial plans to secure financing that will ensure financial stability and establish a firm foundation for the company’s future growth.

In lieu of this, it has recently concluded an agreement with five lenders for a syndicated loan amounting to KRW220 billion with the Korea Exchange Bank as the lead institution and the Woori Bank as the joint lead.

Members of the Executive Committee from the company will host meetings on February 21 and 22 to brief domestic banking institutions, financial analysts, credit rating agencies and domestic investment institutions on this development.

Part of the current financial structuring is consolidating outstanding loans extended to Songwon by several financial institutions through the single syndicated loan. It will also decrease its proportion of short-term debt by increasing long-term borrowing, thereby providing additional stability and reducing borrowing costs.

The Ulsan-based company predicts that it will be able to expand available short-term operating capital with RCF worth KRW50 billion out of KRW220 billion syndicated loan and by simultaneously reducing financial costs and improving its ability to repay interest with an approximate 1% decrease in annual interest charges.

Songwon had built in 2007 what was then to become the world’s largest fully back-integrated antioxidant factory at its plant in Maeam, Ulsan.. Following that the company actively continued to invest to improve competitiveness and expand its business through, among other activities, the back integration in Maeam into the production of high-purity isobutylene in June 2009, a new antioxidant 1076 plant, the acquisition of Additives Technology Greiz GmbH in December 2011