$300 million cotton yarn plant comes to SOHAR Freezone

Sultan bin Salim bin Said al Habsi, Chairman of SOHAR Port and Freezone, led a high-level delegation from Oman to Jaipur, India yesterday. They met with ShriVallabh Pittie Group (SVP), one of the largest manufacturers of cotton yarn in India and a global leader in the sector.

A land lease agreement was signed to establish a new $300 million plant in SOHAR Freezone to manufacture a wide range of cotton yarn, to be operated as SV Pittie Sohar Textiles FZCLLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bombay listed SVP Global Ventures Ltd. The facility will eventually provide over 1,500 jobs and is expected to start commercial operations in late 2019.

Abdullah Humaid al Mamary, Chairman of Bank Sohar, together with Acting-CEO Sasi Kumar and other senior officials from the bank, were also part of the delegation. Bank Sohar has been awarded the syndication mandate to fund the entire project in two phases. An agreement to this effect was entered into with SVP Group. The bank has currently underwritten phase-one debt, to achieve financial closure. On successful completion of phaseone, the bank plans to syndicate a term debt for phase-two, along with a share of phase-one debt, to interested lenders.

Commenting on the agreement, Sasi Kumar said: “We are honoured to be the finance partner for a project of this magnitude that is expected to have a significant impact on the development of the region. It demonstrates our commitment to collaborate as a one-stop financial services provider catering to the diverse needs of individuals and large corporate customers.”

The plant will import 100,000 metric tonnes of cotton fibre annually through SOHAR Port, with around 50 per cent coming from the United States and the remainder split between Australia and India. The plant will produce around 75,000 tonnes of finished yarn each year, which will be exported back through the Port to China and other global markets including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, Portugal and Turkey.