Good question
@Canone.
According to the company's AFS, the nameplate EBITDA is >$500m.
After build, the ramp up to nameplate is 2-3 years.
QPM have targeted almost exclusively government & export finance agencies for the debt EFA, NAIF, EDC, EH, KfW & K-SURE).
Yes, there's also a commercial syndicate which we are yet to hear further on.
Such agencies support the companies they lend to by not only providing the $ they need but also by the favourable terms of the repayments (interest rate and term are better than institutional financing).
These favourable conditions may allow QPM to build Stage 2 out of Stage 1 revenue; avoiding the need for taking on further debt.
QPME is also a source of revenue at projected $60m/year which supports the project's financial health.
Further support to the upside cannot be discounted either such as:
- synergies from say POSCO cathode production as SG mentioned in the preso that
@mattfrombyron discovered,
- state government assistance (such as rail access to TECH, which has been flagged to lower OPEX), or
- production tax credits as proposed by several big names in industry, including Tesla:
https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/tesla-warns-of-urgent-battery-supply-chain-policy-reform-needed-down-under-78953325So all in all, projected EBITDA + favourable debt terms + QPME revenue + possibles = debt demolished.
