05 October 2015
Dubai, UAE: Greenstone Equity Partners, one of the largest independent fund placement firms in the Middle East, announced today the closure of a two-year direct transaction agreement with Tri-Star Resources which resulted in raising a total of USD 70 million to fund the first commercial-scale antimony roasting plant to be built outside of China in Oman. The Oman Antimony Roasting Facility (Facility), which will be located in Sohar Freezone Industrial Park, will be operating at a capacity of 20,000 tonne per annum and will adhere to the highest international environmental standards.

As part of the agreement, Greenstone Equity Partners has closely worked with Tri-Star Resources on the establishment of the joint venture company Strategic Precious Metals Processing LLC (SPMP) and the raise of equity capital from Oman Investment Fund (OIF) and Dutco Natural Resources Investment (formerly known as Castell Investments Ltd), who are both shareholders in SPMP. A senior debt facility worth USD 40 million has also been recently secured from Bank Nizwa SAOG, a leading Islamic Bank in the Sultanate of Oman, which will enable the project to proceed with final engineering and site construction activities.

"We are delighted to reach the financial closure of the Facility which, we are sure, will provide attractive returns on investment for its shareholders and boost local economy in Oman," said Omar Al-Gharabally, President of Greenstone Equity Partners. "Over the past two years, we have been closely working with Tri-Star on various financial and legal aspects of the project and today we are proud to reach this turning point where the project is ready to commence construction work."

"At Greenstone, we are constantly looking to diversify our direct placement platform and align our transaction conditions with the investment preferences of GCC investors. Securing the required capital is only an acknowledgement to investors' confidence in a project of such caliber," he added.

The Facility is scheduled to produce approximately 12 per cent of the world's antimony product output capacity, the remainder historically only being available in China. The main uses of antimony are as a tri-oxide additive in the chemical and plastics industry, as a synthesizer for flame retardant compounds, as a hardener for lead electrodes in lead acid batteries and as a decolorizing agent for optical glass.

Greenstone Equity Partners

Greenstone Equity Partners is a Dubai-based investment and advisory firm specializing in multi-sector, advisory, fund placement, investment, consulting and deal structuring transactions. Greenstone's primary areas of focus are:

·         Fund Placement

·         Advisory

Greenstone provides its clients with advisory services and access to MENA-based sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors and family offices for primary and secondary placements. Greenstone places a strong emphasis on the geographical capital diversification needs of its MENA-based clients. Greenstone is generally engaged as a sole and exclusive MENA fund placement firm by global top quartile investment banks, asset managers and fund managers from both developed and emerging markets.

For further information, please contact: 
Greenstone Equity Partners 
+971 4 382 7600
Omar Al-Gharabally, President 
omar.algharabally@gsequity.com         
Golin MENA 
+971 4 332 3308
Lina Ibrahim, Account Manager                                                             
librahim@golin.com 

                                                                                                           

© Press Release 2015