Page 7 - DMEA Week 16 2021
P. 7
DMEA FINANCE & INVESTMENT DMEA
Carlyle may get compensation
for SAMIR losses
AFRICA CARLYLE Group is a step closer to retrieving at repurchase the commodities”.
least some of its nearly $400mn losses sustained The 200,000-barrel per day (bpd) refinery
when Morocco’s commercial court ordered the ceased operating in late 2015 as debts left SAMIR
Societe Anonyme Marocaine de l’Industrie du unable to finance fresh purchases of crude feed-
Raffinage (SAMIR) to go into liquidation in stock and Saudi-Ethiopian majority owner
2016. Last week, a New York court of appeal Mohamed al-Amoudi reneged on a promised
reversed a July 2020 ruling that Carlyle could not capital injection. Al-Amoudi’s Sweden-based
appeal for insurance to cover its $396mn loss. Corrall Petroleum Holdings held a 67% stake in
According to court documents, the July SAMIR.
2020 decision by Justice O. Peter Sherwood to In late September 2016, Corrall’s legal ave-
reject Carlyle’s assertion that its oil had in effect nues were exhausted, as the Court of Cassation
been stolen by SAMIR had been “unanimously confirmed the verdict, ruling that the wind-up
reversed”. should proceed.
The plaintiffs (Carlyle) sought to “recover Creditors owed part of SAMIR’s estimated
excess marine cargo insurance policy for losses 44bn-dirham ($4.6bn) debt queued up to have
they sustained when a Moroccan oil refinery their claims validated by the courts in order to
became insolvent. secure a slice of the proceeds from the sell-off.
Under the arrangement between plaintiff On July 31, 2018, the Casablanca Commer-
Carlyle Commodities Management L.L.C., then cial Court of Appeal ruled that the local Banque
known as Vermillion Asset Management, LLC, Centrale Populaire (BCP) – a major lender to
and the refinery, Carlyle would pay for crude the company – had obtained valid guarantees
oil that the refinery had contracted to purchase against lending of 1.2bn Moroccan dirhams
from third-party suppliers, and the refinery ($132mn) of debt, out of total borrowings from
would subsequently repurchase the oil from the bank of around 2.9bn dirhams ($307mn).
Carlyle.” BCP thereby secured a place as a senior cred-
The fund filed a claim with its insurers Lloyd’s itor, with privileged claims on liquidated assets.
of London to recover the value of the crude “after A month earlier Glencore – another major cred-
the Moroccan government froze the refinery’s itor – had a claim of 2.2bn dirhams ($233mn)
bank accounts, rendering the refinery unable to validated.
Week 16 22•April•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7
