I may have been a bit casual with my estimations however there are contingencies of 15% built into all figures already. so i think the question of "what if something goes wrong?" has been predominantly taken care of. Base makes $100 mill usd from Kwale every year and with no debt as of Jan 1 2019 they are accumulating $2 mill usd every week in cash. my opinion is that they are conservative in the figures below. However , $354 mill usd debt funding would be 1.5 times the annual FCF of both mines. So 4 years for elimination of debt seems highly unlikely. They have a great track record on this.
Funding Base Resources does not have the financial capacity to internally fund the Toliara Project development. External funding in the form of some mix of debt, JV interest and/orequity will be requiredThe required funding for the Toliara Project can be broken down into three elements:1. Deferred acquisition consideration of $17m payable on receiving LGIM certification ($7m) and on FID ($10m).2. Pre-FID funding of $34m to advance the project, including land acquisition ($10m), DFS completion ($15m) and early construction works and FEED ($9m).3. Construction and operational start-up funding of $590m, consisting of:• Capex of $439m.• Working capital of $110m, including an estimated $58m for VAT (legally refundable but assumed for the purposes of funding analysis to not be recovered until operating yearfive).• Debt establishment and servicing during construction of $41m (based on the funding mix assumed below).It expected that deferred acquisition consideration and pre-FID costs will be funded internally from cash generated by Kwale Operations or utilisation of the existing $75m Revolving CreditFacility (RCF) depending on timing.The ultimate funding mix for construction and start-up will be determined prior to FID and will be dependent on Base Resources internally generated cashflow position and forecasts forthe construction and ramp-up period, market outlook, debt availability and cost, and scope of any strategic offtake joint venture at the time. For the purposes of the funding analysis, thefollowing assumptions have been made in arriving at the $590m of construction and start-up funding:• 40% Equity - $236m sourced from cash generated from Kwale Operations (including the current $75m RCF) and a capital raising of approximately $100m.• 60% Debt - $354m sourced from traditional banks, DFIs and export credit agencies.Financial modelling confirms the project’s ability to comfortably support this debt load. The Company has appointed advisors to lead the debt funding and, to date, have held preliminarydiscussions with a select group of lenders and political risk insurance providers.Opportunities for JV participation in conjunction with substantial offtake arrangements have been identified and will be explored further following release of the PFS.On the basis of the project economics established by the PFS (in particular free cash flow generation), the robust market outlook for mineral sands products (refer Marketing analysis), theCompany’s sound financial position (net cash and cash generation from Kwale Operations), track record of successfully developing and implementing and repaying financing on a similarproject (Kwale Operations), prior success in capital raising as and when required (including for the acquisition of the Toliara Project in early 2018) and preliminary work alreadyundertaken in relation to debt and JV participation, Base Resources’ considers that there is a reasonable basis that development of the Toliara Project can be successfully funded.
BSE Price at posting:
31.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held