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Smackover Lithium Receives Indications of Interest for Over $1 Billion in Project Finance for the SWA Project
All figures are in US dollars unless otherwise stated. LEWISVILLE, Ark., Dec. 09, 2025 (GLO...
About this update from Standard Lithium Ltd.
[{"type":"text","content":"Smackover Lithium Receives Indications of Interest for Over $1 Billion in Project Finance for the SWA Project\n\n\n\n\n All figures are in US dollars unless otherwise stated.\n \n\n\n LEWISVILLE, Ark., Dec. 09, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Smackover Lithium, a Joint Venture (“JV”) between Standard Lithium Ltd. (“Standard Lithium” or the “Company”) (TSXV: SLI) (NYSE.A: SLI) and Equinor, is providing an update with respect to the project financing being pursued for the South West Arkansas Project (“SWA Project” or the “Project”). Smackover Lithium has received expressions of interest from three major Export Credit Agencies (“ECAs”), including among them Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) and Export Finance Norway (Eksfin), for over $1 billion in senior secured project debt (the “ECA Financing”) to fund the construction of Phase 1 of the SWA Project.\n \n\n Smackover Lithium is currently seeking a senior secured, limited recourse debt financing package of up to $1.1 billion in total (the “Project Debt”). The Project Debt is expected to be comprised of i) the ECA Financing package, which includes direct lending and the provision of ECA loan guarantees to a group of commercial banks (the covered tranche) that together account for a substantial portion of the total debt, and ii) an uncovered tranche of senior secured project debt from the commercial banks.\n \n\n Earlier this year, Smackover Lithium conducted a market sounding of global commercial banks that are active in the project financing debt market and received multiple expressions of interest for both the covered tranche under the ECA Financing and the uncovered tranche. The responses included indicative terms that were consistent with the expectations of the JV and validated certain assumptions regarding the cost, term, structure and conditions that are customary for project debt facilities of this nature.   The combined commercial bank interest, together with the ECA Financing, exceed the targeted Project Debt.\n \n\n The Project Debt will be used to fund total estimated capital expenditures of $1.45 billion for the SWA Project based on the results of the JV’s Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) and Definitive Feasibility Study, as well as ...