Aluminium Bahrain is pressing ahead with a plan to buy France’s Aluminium Dunkerque, but the price has risen sharply since the idea was first mooted earlier in the year.
Alba said the deal to buy the smelter was valued at around $2.2 billion. The plant — the largest of its kind in the European Union — is currently owned by American Industrial Partners. French public investment bank Bpifrance will acquire a minority stake alongside Alba; the two signed a memorandum of understanding on their partnership at an investment summit in Paris this week.
When the deal was first floated in early March, Aluminium Dunkerque was valued at around $1.2 billion. Since then, prices for the metal have hit a four-year high, as the Iran war disrupted supplies from several big plants in the Gulf. Alba itself suffered several direct hits on its facilities in March, causing its first quarter sales to fall 17% year-on-year. The French deal will sharply reduce its dependence on its home plant.