OREANDA-NEWS. September 29, 2008. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is advancing a loan of US65 million to OJSC Sinara Transport Machines, one of Russia’s biggest manufacturers of freight locomotives. The subordinated loan will be repayable on maturity in seven years’ time under a bullet structure, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

The project will contribute to overcoming a shortage of rolling stock and traction units which has been holding back the development of railway transport in Russia. In 2008, Russia’s state-owned rail operator RZD said it would need over 11,600 new locomotives between now and 2015.

This transaction highlights five of the EBRD’s key priorities in Russia, said the Bank’s Corporate Sector Director for Russia, Eric Rasmussen.

It contributes to the renewal of Russian infrastructure; it reaches out to the regions of Russia which are already the recipient of 90 percent of the EBRD’s funding; it is targeted at a private Russian manufacturing company; it is yet another deal contributing to the diversification of the Russian economy away from the commodities sector; and, finally, it will not only help increase production, but do so using less energy, Mr. Rasmussen said.

This long-term loan from the EBRD will by 2013 allow Sinara Transport Machines to create a high-tech production plant capable of building over 500 locomotive units a year, set up a service centre and continue work on developing new models, said Evgeni Kopein, director-general of Sinara Transport Machines.

The loan will fund the modernisation of production facilities and will support serial production of freight locomotives, particularly the new and highly performing 2ES6 model, at its UZGM (Ural Railway Engineering Plant) unit near Yekaterinburg.

Part of the loan will also be used to consolidate a recently acquired locomotive plant in Kaluga Region and refinance earlier loans. Of the total, US 5 million will be earmarked for priority investments in energy efficiency. Mr. Kopein of Sinara Transport Machines said this would enable the group’s plant producing diesel shunting locomotives in the central Kaluga Region to cut energy consumption by up to 15 percent.

OJSC Sinara Transport Machines is part of the Sinara Group, a diversified Ekaterinburg-based holding grouping 16 companies whose key business lines include railway engineering, financial services and property development.