Chreca and Jeremy, no one is happy with the timeline and the delays. I certainly am not happy. Neither am I happy with the price for which ICL got the partnership deal. But it is what it is. A couple of things to keep in mind:

1) Allana has met every milestone set out. EVERY one. Maybe not in the timeframe they had hoped for, but they have ALL been met.

2) There is this little thing when dealing with governments and large financial institutions called bureaucracy. Now in an emerging market like Ethiopia, I would imagine that the bureaucracy is even worse than in a first world country. Also, one of the conditions for a loan from Afreximbank was that Allana have a experienced partner (ICL in this case). Below is an exerpt from the afreximbank website (link below):

The distinguishing feature is that the promoters must be experienced entities with good market knowledge and ability to successfully run the projects or where the promoters are not experienced, they will be required to enter into operating arrangements with reputable entities.

Of course the question I have now is, if the ICL deal was completed in February, we are now in June, so what is taking so long? Maybe the government is involved in the financing as well?

http://afreximbank.com/afrexim/en/Programmesfacilities/ProgrammesFacilities/ExportDevelopmentScheme/ProjectRelatedFinancingProgramme.aspx

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