Page 10 - DMEA Week 45 2021

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Another chapter in the

curious case of SAMIR

AFRICA EMPLOYEES of Morocco’s lone refiner have order to secure a slice of the proceeds from the
reached out to the state to intervene in the com- sell-off.
pany’s liquidation case, which has been ongoing On July 31, 2018, the Casablanca Commer-
since shortly after it was mothballed in 2015. cial Court of Appeal ruled that the local Banque
In an open letter sent to new Prime Minister Centrale Populaire (BCP) – a major lender to
Aziz Akhannouch in October, an industry body the company – had obtained valid guarantees
affiliated with the Democratic Confederation of against lending of MAD1.2bn ($132mn) of debt,
Labour (CDT) appealed for the minister to show out of total borrowings from the bank of around
“courage” to intervene in the case and save Soci- MAD2.9bn ($307mn).
ete Anonyme Marocaine de l’Industrie du Raffi- BCP thereby secured a place as a senior credi-
nage (SAMIR) which operated a 200,000 barrel tor, with privileged claims on liquidated assets. A
per day (bpd) facility at Mohammedia until its month earlier Glencore – another major creditor
closure. The National Union of Petroleum & – had a claim of MAD2.2bn ($233mn) validated.
Natural Gas Industries (SNIPGN) accused the Then in 2019, trading giants Glencore and
previous administration of “evasion and passiv- Trafigura submitted lowball bids of $14.99mn
ity” on the matter. and $11.7mn respectively to acquire the refinery
Last week, SNIPGN secretary-general Hou- only for little-known British firm Exol Lubri-
cine El Yamani told Jeune Afrique: “So far, we cants to make an even lower offer of $8.23mn.
have not received any response from the head of Each of these were a far cry from the administra-
government, nor from the minister responsible tor’s initial asset valuation of $2.5-3bn and were
for the energy transition.” seen as derisory, though with much the $4.6bn
In its report, the publication pointed out that of debts still outstanding – $1.4bn of which was
the case is likely to be of significant interest to due to Rabat – the low price may have been
Akhannouch whose company Afriquia owns the justifiable.
country’s largest network of fuel stations. The offers appeared to expire with little fan-
SAMIR’s doors closed as debts had left it una- fare while in May 2020, the judge appointed
ble to finance fresh purchases of crude feedstock to the liquidation accepted a state offer to rent
and Saudi-Ethiopian majority owner Mohamed SAMIR’s 2mn cubic metre storage facilities as
al-Amoudi reneged on a promised capital injec- Morocco sought to insulate consumers from oil
tion. Al-Amoudi’s Sweden-based Corrall Petro- price volatility.
leum Holdings held a 67% stake in the company. In April this year, a New York court of appeal
In late September 2016, Corrall’s legal ave- reversed a July 2020 ruling that US investment
nues were exhausted, as the Court of Cassation firm Carlyle Group could not appeal that insur-
confirmed the verdict, ruling that the wind-up ance should cover its $396mn loss from SAMIR’s
should proceed. Creditors owed part of SAMIR’s liquidation.
estimated MAD44bn ($4.6bn) debt queued up According to court documents, the July
to have their claims validated by the courts in 2020 decision by Justice O. Peter Sherwood to

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