The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a seven-year loan of $15 million to a major manufacturer and supplier of fixtures and equipment for retail stores and warehouses – Modern Expo Group, the bank reported on Friday. The proceeds will be used to increase production volumes at the two principal manufacturing sites in Lutsk (Ukraine) and in Vitebsk (Belarus). The company will also be able to restructure its balance sheet.
Modern-Expo is a privately owned company, which has been operating in Ukraine for over 20 years and expanded to Belarus in 2014. It is one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of fixtures and equipment for retail stores and warehouses in central and Eastern Europe.
The main plant with an area of over 65,000 square meters and the Ukrainian office are located in Lutsk. In 2013, the group launched production in Verkhniodniprovsk (Dnipropetrovsk region) with an area of 22,000 square meters. In 2017, RED POS equipment manufacturer (Lviv) joined the group.
Around 65% of company revenues are generated from export sales to more than 60 countries around the world. It supplies its products to major international retailers including Auchan, Carrefour, Billa, Nestle and many others.
The EBRD is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine. To date, the bank has made a cumulative commitment of almost EUR 12.1 billion across some 400 projects since the start of its operations in the country in 1993.
Since the start of its operations in Belarus in 1992, the EBRD has invested over EUR 2 billion in 95 projects in various sectors of the country’s economy.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will issue a long-term loan of up to $20 million to Astarta, a Ukrainian agro-industrial holding, to finance working capital necessary for plant growing, sugar beets and soybeans processing. EBRD Senior Adviser on External Relations Anton Usov told Interfax-Ukraine the board of directors made a corresponding decision at a meeting on July 18.
The bank says its funding will also contribute to improving efficiency and productivity through the introduction of modern IT solutions and farming practices and support of stronger ties with local suppliers.
According to information on the EBRD’s website, the overall valuation of the project is estimated at $242 million.
As reported, the EBRD in October 2017 issued a $25 million loan to Astarta for seven years for the construction and purchase of sugar and grain storage facilities.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding that operates in eight regions of Ukraine. The holding includes eight sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of about 250,000 hectares and dairy farms.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide a loan of EUR10 million to Kyivsky cardboard and paper mill (KCPM), a leading company in the sector and based outside Ukraine’s capital. This will be a seven-year loan to boost energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions, the EBRD said in a statement on July 13. The purchase of a shoe press for cardboard drying will help KCPM reduce the use of steam, increase production volumes and improve the quality of coated cardboard. The replacement of pumps will halve the electricity needs of this equipment. Combined annual savings are expected to reach up to EUR2 million.
New converting and packing lines for the production of tissues will be procured as part of the project and will allow the company to widen its range of products for use in office buildings, hotels, schools and airports. It will also help KCPM increase its domestic and export sales, including those to the EU.
KCPM will upgrade its waste-paper processing equipment, which will allow the firm to improve the quality – and reduce the cost of cardboard production. These improvements will make it possible to reprocess waste paper up to four times. This will be the first production cycle in the country to implement the EU principles of using fewer resources and increasing energy efficiency.
The investments are expected to reduce the company’s annual CO2e emissions by up to 11,000 tonnes. Kyivsky cardboard paper mill is one of the largest cardboard and paper producers in Europe. It employs almost 2,200 people. It sells produce to almost 700 companies in Ukraine, some CIS member states and the rest of the world. In 2017, the mill saw a 14.8% rise in production from 2016, to UAH 4.85 billion. The mill is owned by Pulp Mill Holding GmbH (Austria), its ultimate beneficiary is businessman Volodymyr Krupchak.
The EBRD is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine. Since the start of its operations in the country in 1993, the Bank has made a cumulative commitment of almost EUR 12.1 billion across some 400 projects in Ukraine.
ING Bank N.V. (ING), as a mandated lead arranger and bookrunner, a syndicate of European commercial banks, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have signed an agreement on providing a $80 million syndicated term loan for Mykolaiv-based Nibulon. The assets will be used to finance the company’s working capital needs associated with purchase of commodities in Ukraine and exports to the global market, according to a reports on the company’s website.
The loan tenor is three years.
Nibulon was established in 1991. It is one of the largest operators in the grain market of the country. It has elevators with a total capacity of about 2 million tonnes, as well as its own transshipment terminal with a capacity of 5 million tonnes in Mykolaiv. The company has 11 river terminals on the Dnipro and the Southern Buh, its fleet consists of 67 vessels. Nibulon cultivates 83,000 hectares of farmland. It exports farm produce more than 60 countries. The annual volume of exports exceeds 4.5 million tonnes.
Ukraine and the European Investment Bank (EIB) on the margins of the Ukraine-EU summit in Brussels on Monday signed an agreement on the allocation of a EUR 75 million loan for the implementation of the project on improving road safety in Ukrainian cities. “The EIB allocates EUR 75 million, which will be received by five largest cities in Ukraine – Dnipro, Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa and Kharkiv,” the press service of Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze reported.
The EIB said in a press release due to the signing of the agreement that in addition to the loan, an EU grant of EUR 4.25 million will be provided as part of the so-called Neighborhood Investment Facility (NIF), allocated for the preparation of the project, development and monitoring.
The executor of the project is the Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry, and the recipients of financial assistance from the EIB are the authorities of these cities. Investment will be directed to eliminate the most dangerous sections by creating better interchanges and modern transport systems, as well as improving intersections and updating the road infrastructure, the bank said.
According to the bank, other changes planned within the project will include the development of a network of safe bike and pedestrian paths, urban transport planning system, introduction of speed limits in residential areas and school areas, and the introduction of an IT-based traffic management system.
The German Development Bank (KfW) will provide OTP Leasing (Kyiv) with a subordinated loan of $17 million under the Agrofinancing program.
According to a press release of KfW, the corresponding loan agreement was signed by the parties on June 19.
The loan is granted for seven years with payment at the end of the term.
“To date, KfW has cooperated with banks in the Ukrainian financial sector, but leasing is a good alternative for financing investments, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises in agricultural sector. Therefore we are very pleased with our new partner, OTP Leasing, and, providing it with a subordinated loan, we are implementing a new financial instrument in Ukrainian leasing,” KfW Director in Ukraine Lutz Horn-Haacke said.
According to the report, the loan attracted by OTP Leasing will allow to provide Ukrainian companies with $180 million financing this year instead of the planned $100 million.
OTP Leasing is part of the European financial group OTP Group. The company was founded in June 2008 as a subsidiary of OTP Bank. It provides a full range of leasing services, works with the leading manufacturers of machinery, equipment and vehicles.
