Alkagesta, Malta’s largest oil cargo-handler, has acquired a credit line of $15 million from FIMBank. The company announced this news itself on its website.
The credit line is unusual because Alkagesta uses foreign banks for its operations such as Raiffeisen Bank, which is the largest European bank still operating in Russia.
Alkagesta is under increased scrutiny after its hidden owner, Adnan Ahmadzada was arrested in Azerbaijan last month. The fact that it needed to announce a credit line from FIMBank is unusual and reeks of desperation to announce legitimacy. FIMBank is taking a significant risk because Alkagesta is being investigated by both local and foreign authorities. Alkagesta is being investigated for trafficking Libyan and Russian oil in Malta and Europe. There’s also significant risk in this for FIMBank because the credit line is in US Dollars which would make the violation of sanctions against Russian oil even more aggravating.
FIMBank is owned by the Kuwait Projects Company, which is owned by the Al Futtooh Holding Company, owned by the ruling-family of Kuwait. Malta’s branch of FIMBank is listed on the Malta Stock Exchange with a market share of up to €77 million. It is a small bank that is not significant to the economy nor to the local industries and clearly shows it has little aversion for risk.
Alkagesta is trading oil in large volume and needs credit facilities much larger than $15 million in order to execute very large trades. The fact that they are turning to a small bank like FIMBank for credit may be a sign that larger banks are becoming more cautious. By comparison, Raiffeisen Bank, currently has a market cap of up to €9.82 billion.
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