Metro Alliance to rehabilitate polyethylene plant in Bataan

Metro Alliance Holdings & Equities Corp., together with its foreign partner, NPC International of Iran, will spend a combined $20 million to re-commission a mothballed polyethylene plant in Mariveles, Bataan.

Metro Alliance chairman and president Renato Magadia said the estimated rehabilitation cost of the polyethylene plant is $80 to $85 million.

Metro Alliance, a company majority-owned by businessman William Gatchalian, will infuse $8 million while Iran’s NPC International will cover the remaining $12 million.

"Recommissioning should happen before the end of the year or early next year," Magadia said.

Sourcing of funds will come from the sale of Metro Alliance’s stake in NPC Alliance.

The Bataan polyethylene plant has a rated capacity of 275,000 metric tons a year, with enough room for future expansion. It uses the BP innovene gas phase process, which entails processing polyethylene resin for distribution to plastic producers.

The plant was decommissioned in 2003, before Metro Alliance acquired it last year through a debt and equity purchase from British Petroleum, Malaysia’s Petronas and Japan’s Sumitomo Corp.

The acquisition of the Bataan polyethylene plant was done through unit Polymax Worldwide Ltd., a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands and was used as the acquisition vehicle in the purchase of the plant

When asked whether the group was still open to selling its remaining 40-percent stake, Magadia said: "There’s always room for other investors. If the price is right, why not. But at the moment our main objective is to make the plant operational soon."

The company has reduced its loans to $7 million from $16 million last year.