KYIV. Sept 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a loan of up to EUR 1.4 million to support resource and energy efficiency improvements at Khask Group, a Ukrainian manufacturer of flexible packaging materials, the EBRD said in a press release on Friday.
Khask, where the bank is a shareholder, will also become the first domestic beneficiary of the Bank’s Finance and Technology Transfer Centre for Climate Change (FINTECC) program through a grant for the implementation of a solvent recovery system, which will help remove impurities from used chemicals.
The investment will finance the acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment that will allow Khask to implement its modernization program, which aims to reduce the use of energy and solvents and achieve a subsequent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
In particular, solvent recovery systems, together with additional energy efficiency measures, will help Khask save up to 350,000 m3 of natural gas per year and avoid annual emissions of up to 2,900 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
In 2016, Ukraine became a member of the EBRD’s FINTECC program, which is designed to transfer technology in the area of climate change mitigation and adaptation. It successfully operates in 14 countries where the EBRD invests.
The three-year program is supported by $7 million of grant funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and a EUR 4 million grant from the EU’s Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF).
In addition, Khask has benefited from support through the EBRD Small Business Impact Fund, which, with financial support from the United States, has provided $2 million to moderate the risks of EBRD investment in Ukraine and enable wider lending.
Khask Group is a Kharkiv-based Ukrainian company and one of the leading regional producers of high-quality flexible plastic packaging materials and self-adhesive tapes. The EBRD became a shareholder of the firm in 2011.
The EBRD is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine. To date, the Bank has made a cumulative commitment of almost EUR 12 billion through 368 projects since the start of its operations in the country in 1993.
