The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will issue a $10 million loan to Sodrugestvo agro-industrial group, one of the world’s largest soybean processors. According to information on the bank’s website, the funds will be used to finance working capital for the group’s subsidiaries in Serbia and Ukraine.
In addition, the EBRD is organizing a $80 million loan to finance capital expenditures and working capital for a Sodrugestvo subsidiary in Turkey. It is expected that the EBRD will issue $55 million, and the rest of the loan ($25 million) will be syndicated. The cost of the entire project is estimated at $87.5 million. The funds will be used to partially finance the purchase of a production facility in Izmir (Turkey), upgrade the acquired object and finance working capital to expand activities in Turkey.
According to the bank, the financing will allow the company to expand the supplier base in Ukraine and Serbia and support the purchase of assets in Turkey.
Sodrugestvo Group was founded in 1994. It has headquarters in Luxembourg and over 30 enterprises in 20 countries. The company operates in the regions of Russia, the CIS, Scandinavia, Northern Europe, the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, Central and Latin America.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will issue a loan of EUR 20 million (two tranches of EUR 10 million) to Dniprovska agribusiness group, one of the largest poultry producers in Ukraine, for the reconstruction and expansion of the slaughtering house. According to the bank’s website, the total cost of the project is EUR 33.8 million, of which EUR 23.8 million will be invested in 2019-2020, another EUR 10 million in 2020-2021.
According to the EBRD’s website, the project will enable the company to obtain necessary certification for entering the EU market.
As reported, in March 2018 the EBRD issued $5 million to Dniprovska group for the construction of a biogas plant. The total project cost was $5.85 million.
Dniprovska agribusiness group is engaged in poultry farming, plant growing, and processing industrial crops.
The portfolio of government domestic loan bonds held by non-residents as of July 4 reached a new historical record high of UAH 60.12 billion at face value, including an increase of UAH 2.71 billion following the results of primary auctions conducted on July 2.
According to data released by the National Bank, the entire increase was traditionally provided by hryvnia securities, by UAH 3.91 billion, which total UAH 58.21 billion in the portfolio held by non-residents.
Such an inflow of funds from non-residents allowed the National Bank to buy out $52 million in the market after primary auctions on July 3, although the hryvnia exchange rate strengthened and for the first time since April 2018 it overcame the level of UAH 26/$1.
A week earlier, the portfolio of government bonds owned by non-residents grew by UAH 4.79 billion, but then a small part of it (UAH 390 million) was secured by equities in U.S. dollars.
In general, since the beginning of 2019 the portfolio of government bonds owned by non-residents has increased by UAH 53.77 billion, or 9.5 times.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has decided to approve the attraction of a loan in the amount of EUR 149 million by national energy company Ukrenergo for the project to modernize power lines from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Finance Ministry of Ukraine reported on Thursday. According to the report of the ministry, the project foresees the replacement of transformer equipment and reconstruction of 12 substations with the installation of automated process management systems.
The project would allow the company to increase effectiveness and reliability of electricity transmission in western, northern, southern and central regions of Ukraine, modernize the key power transmission facilities, which is the condition for harmonization of the Ukrainian power grid with the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), the ministry said.
Ukrainian gas transmission system (GTS) operator JSC Ukrtransgaz (UTG) has addressed the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and European Investment Bank (EIB) with a request to revise current modernization loan agreements for Ukraine’s section of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline. UTG said in its press release that one of the reasons for which it is unable to implement the loan program was the operator’s failure to meet the financial stability requirements outlined in the loan agreements with the EBRD and EIB (due to tariffs for its services which have been set too low since the end of last year).
The company added that reliability and effectiveness of the Ukrainian section of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline could be improved with a significantly smaller amount of assets (than it is envisaged in the loan agreements).
“For this reason the company is asking the EBRD to reduce the amount of its loan as long as a EUR 125 million investment (instead of EUR 300 million) is sufficient for the achievement of its primary goals,” reads the statement.
UTG also asked the financial institutions to hold consultations with the Ukrainian government in order to determine the extent of liability on the loan agreements for UTG and a new GTS operator as well as the mechanism for use of funds and loan servicing after the completion of the unbundling process in Ukraine.
As reported, UTG signed a EUR 300 million loan agreement with the EBRD and EIB (EUR 150 million from each) for the modernization of Ukraine’s section of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline. Ukrtransgaz will also invest EUR 166 million of its own funds in the project.
Ukrtransgaz, a 100% subsidiary of Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates Ukraine’s system of trunk gas pipelines and 12 underground gas storage facilities.
GAS PIPELINE, LOAN, MODERNIZATION, REVISE, UKRTRANSGAZ, URENGOY-POMARY-UZHGOROD
NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy has completed repayments under the loan agreements worth $500 million received under the World Bank’s guarantees and state guarantees, the press service of the company has reported.
According to Naftogaz, within the framework of these loan agreements, which were signed on December 30, 2016, the company managed to purchase about 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas from the European direction over two years.
“In general, since 2014, Naftogaz has redeemed the state-guaranteed loan debt amounting to about $3.2 billion in a timely manner and in full. Naftogaz’s loan portfolio has decreased by 6.6 times since 2014 and is a record low,” Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolev said.
The company noted the important role of further cooperation with the creditors and noted that this year the company plans to pump 3 billion cubic meters of gas more into underground gas storage facilities (20 billion cubic meters) compared to the previous year.
