Valuation of securities relating to Lochaber Guarantee: FOI release

Information requested

1. The Scottish Government in media statements has stated that an independent valuation of the Scottish Government's securities relating to the Lochaber Guaranteevalued them at more than the outstanding amount of the guarantee. Please providethis valuation figure.

2. Please also provide the independent valuation itself, who undertook the valuation,at what date, and for how much taxpayer money.

Response

The Scottish Government has taken certain securities over assets of the GFG Alliance at Lochaber and by way of guarantees from other Group companies to protect its position in the event that it is required to make any payment under the Lochaber guarantee. Independent valuations of the business assets that form part of the Scottish Government’s security package are held from three sources: (i) an independent valuation of Simec Lochaber Hydropower 2 Limited in October 2017, (ii) an independent valuation of Simec Lochaber Hydropower Limited prepared for the Scottish Government as at 30 June 2019, and (iii) an independent analysis and valuation report of Lochaber prepared August 2021. The information held by the Scottish Government that falls within the scope of your request has been attached separately for your reference.

The October 2017 valuation was shared with the Scottish Government at no cost to the taxpayer and for the second valuation prepared for the Scottish Government Deloitte LLP were paid £75,000.

GFG’s valuation figures are based on a Grant Thornton assessment of the value of the hydro and smelter and these figures are publically available. The figures can be found in the 31 March 2019 accounts for Alvance British Aluminium at this link ALVANCE BRITISH ALUMINIUM LTD filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK (companyinformation.service.gov.uk) and for the 30 November 2018 accounts for Simec Hydropower 2 Limited at this link SIMEC LOCHABER HYDROPOWER 2 LIMITED filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK (company-information.service.gov.uk).

While our aim is to provide you information wherever we can, on this occasion we are unable to provide you with all of the information you have requested as statutory exemptions under FOISA apply. Further information on what exemptions apply and why can be found in the annex below.

Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload some documents referred to above. If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI - 202200298479 - Information Released - Annex A

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