FHL secures 190 million loan

Fijian Holdings Limited is expected to seal the deal with an overseas financial institution before the end of this month regarding the $190 million loan to purchase BP South West Pacific service stations and related operations.

FHL chairman Isoa Kaloumaira did not want to divulge the details of the overseas financial institution that has agreed to finance the loan, however he said the Hindustan Petroleum Company which won the tender to manage the operations of FHL Energy Limited has assisted a lot in securing the loan.

The operations of FHL Energy would be managed by Hindustan Petroleum which is a publicly listed company and second largest oil company in India generating an annual revenue of $27 million US and operating over 8,000 retail outlets all over India.

It has also been confirmed that the BP business includes 67 retail outlets and other operations in Fiji, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Tonga and American Samoa.

The investment would make Fijian Holdings one of the largest corporate entities in the region with total staff exceeding 1,500 and consolidated revenue exceeding $600 million from next year onwards.

Kaloumaira also confirmed the Fiji National Provident Fund turned down the offer to take the loan after being approached by FHL because of the current financial liquidity.