Ukraine on February 28 raised a loan of EUR 529 million from Deutsche Bank under the guarantee of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, the World Bank Group), according to the website of the Ministry of Finance. The funds were received in two tranches: an A tranche in the amount of EUR240 million with maturity in four years and a B tranche in the amount of EUR289 million with a final maturity in ten years (four years and six months after raising the funds, the loan is subject to gradual repayment with certain amounts every half a year).
The second part of the guarantee in the amount of $375 million in the euro equivalent of the total amount of the World Bank guarantees of $750 million was used for the loan.
As reported, the World Bank Board of Executive Directors on December 18, 2018 approved the provision of guarantees to Ukraine in the amount of $750 million in support of state policy.
Myronivsky Hliboproduct Agroholding (MHP) will borrow EUR120 million (UAH 3.79 billion) in a loan from ING Bank N.V., PrJSC Zernoproduct MHP reported.
The company will act as a guarantor for this loan, it said in an announcement of the information disclosure system of Ukraine’s National Securities and Stock Market Commission.
PrJSC Zernoproduct MHP’s assets are estimated at UAH 6.103 billion, according to the latest financial statements. The ratio of loan value to asset value is 62%.
According to the MHP website, PJSC Zernoproduct MHP was established in 2004, it has 19 branches, two grain elevators, 23 dairy farms. Its land bank is 90,900 hectares.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved a EUR 50 million credit line to help Ukraine’s railway and road authorities, Ukrzaliznytsia and Ukravtodor, eliminate bottlenecks in European transport networks. As the bank announced, its board of directors approved the project on September 19, 2018. It covers projects for small transport infrastructure worth up to EUR 20 million.
Loans are to be used to improve interaction within the framework of the Eastern Neighborhood and provide substantial support for small-scale but locally significant projects. It is also expected that such financing will improve traffic safety.
The EIB document states that the total cost of this framework project is approximately EUR 110 million, but other sources of co-financing are not specified.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering a project for the issue of a EUR35 million multi-currency loan to France’s Soufflet Group for the work of its subsidiaries in Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, and Serbia. According to the bank, the board of its directors plans to discuss this project at a meeting on October 3 this year.
It is assumed that the funds will be used to replenish working capital necessary for the subsidiaries to work in the agro-market of these countries: from storage and processing into malt to trade in agricultural products.
Among the customers are Soufflet Agro Ukraine and Soufflet Agro Polska, which are 100% subsidiaries of Soufflet Group.
In the first half of 2018, Soufflet Agro Ukraine LLC saw revenue rise by 60.3%, to UAH 2.707 billion, while net profit fall by 2.8%, to UAH 109.93 million.
Last year the company more than doubled revenue, to UAH 3.835 billion, posting a net loss of UAH 23.23 million against UAH 31.49 million net profit a year earlier.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has lent a $20 million loan to Zerno-Agrotrade LLC and Tsukoragroprom LLC, owned by the Astarta agro-industrial holding, for replenishment of their working capital.
“Astarta will introduce advanced IT solutions necessary for precise farming that it develops in Ukraine. These modern agricultural technologies will allow boosting the yield of agricultural crops and reducing the use of mineral fertilizers by 15%,” EBRD Senior Adviser for External Relations Anton Usov wrote on Facebook.
In the next three years, Astarta also plans to increase the area of land on which it will use the technology of precision farming.
“In the context of this project, Astarta will also offer a high-quality integrated training program for graduates of schools and students of universities who want to work in the agricultural sector of Ukraine,” Usov noted.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in Poltava, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, and Kharkiv regions. It consists of eight sugar refineries, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of about 250,000 hectares, a soybean processing facility, dairy farms and a complex that produce energy from agricultural residues.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will consider a loan worth up to EUR 150 million for LLC SyvashEnergoProm, a subsidiary of Norway’s NBT, for the construction of a 250 MW wind farm in Kherson region, the lender said on its website. “This is a long-term senior loan of up to EUR 150 million in an A/B structure, of which up to EUR 75 million would be funded from the EBRD resources and the remainder would be syndicated in a B-loan structure to eligible institutions. The remaining project financing is expected to be provided via parallel loans from IFIs, DFIs, and other investors,” the Bank said.
The total cost of the project is EUR 369 million.
The project will help support the development of renewable energy in Ukraine and the overall decarbonisation of the energy sector. As was reported, NBT SA, which is a Norwegian wind farm developer with operating wind farms in China, in April 2018 bought LLC SyvashEnergoProm (operates a wind farm whose capacity is about 3 MW). It plans to build a wind farm with a capacity of 250-330 MW in neighboring areas.
