The Consortium has closed the bank refinancing with an important operation on a loan of 70 million, which has allowed a saving of 5 million euros in financial expenses
This savings is added to the restructuring of the Reindus debt and that maintained with the Treasury carried out in recent months
The Consortium complies with the Viability Plan launched for the period 2020-2025 and has put an end to the refinancing and rearrangement process of its global debt
The Cádiz Free Trade Zone has concluded the restructuring of its global debt with an important refinancing operation of its financial debt, a loan of 70 million euros with banking entities, which has meant a saving of 4.4 million euros in interest and 350,000 euros in commissions applicable to the loan, which represents a decrease of nearly 5 million euros in financial costs.
The comprehensive restructuring of the Consortium's financial debt is added to that achieved months ago with the Reindus debt and the Treasury debt. In the first case, its restructuring meant savings of 1.4 million euros, after the improvements achieved in terms of the interest rate applied and the repayment schedule, which allows payments to be faced with greater peace of mind. Regarding the debt with the Treasury (the longest-standing debt owed by Reindus and which had therefore already passed to the Treasury) the reduction is 12 million euros.
All of these operations have meant a total saving of 6.4 million euros in interest for the Consortium, thereby resolving medium and long-term treasury tensions and clearing up possible short-term liquidity problems.
In addition to the savings, this debt refinancing provides the Consortium with a release of tension due to the proximity of the conclusion of the loan, scheduled for March 2024, and greater peace of mind having gone from a variable rate to a fixed one.
This important saving in the global debt of the Consortium and the full compliance with the Viability Plan confirm the positive evolution of the Cádiz Free Zone that was already reflected two months ago in the accounts prepared for 2021, which showed that the path of positive operating results, of 1.5 million euros, and a working capital also positive, of 12 million euros, is maintained, evidencing a true point of inflection in the economic and financial situation of the Consortium, which puts the entity on the path to profits in the coming years.
Important commercial activity and improvement in infrastructure
It should be noted that commercial activity has had great importance in these results. In the year-on-year period of July 21-22, 21 sales operations have been closed and there have been important operations to attract companies to the Cadiz tax area, such as the Oesía Group, which develops cutting-edge technology; the submarine cable storage and distribution company Atelde; the lease of the cross building of the old Altadis to the Civil Guard; or the arrival of Sola Rica to the tax precinct. In addition, operations to expand facilities of traditional operators such as Cayco, Cetárea del Sur or Petaca Chico, among others, have been registered.
Solo como referencia en el ejercicio 2021 se formalizaron 74 contratos de arrendamiento y 25 de compraventa que han supuesto ingresos de 130.000 euros mensuales en el primer caso y casi 9 millones de euros, en el segundo. This, added to the income from the settlement of the agreement with the Los Barrios City Council, has meant an increase in income in 2021 of 12.8 million euros.
In parallel to this commercial activity and the economic and financial improvement, we must mention the Comprehensive Improvement Plan of the Site, whose objective is to optimize and recover productive spaces, and the two great milestones that the Free Trade Zone of Cádiz is developing in the capital and in the Bay of Algeciras: the technological expansion center with the blue economy incubator of Zona Base, the outer polygon of the Free Zone of Cádiz, whose first stone It was carried out by the Minister of Finance two weeks ago and represents the strong point of the change to a sustainable industrial model, more responsible and committed to the environment; and the Bahía de Algeciras Tax Precinct, in the municipality of Los Barrios. These two actions will involve the implementation of two centers of economic activity of great importance that will have an impact on the two Bays (that of Cádiz and that of Algeciras) and throughout their area of influence and will allow the Free Trade Zone of Cádiz to obtain new resources.