EBRD Lends USD 23 mn to Ukraine Agrotrade
OREANDA-NEWS. July 20, 2012. The EBRD is providing a financing package worth up to USD 23 million to Agrotrade Group of Ukraine (Agrotrade), one the major domestic agribusiness commodities operators. The package will include a working capital loan of up to USD 15 million and a senior loan of up to USD 8 million. The latter will finance energy efficiency measures and the expansion of grain handling facilities, reported the press-centre of EBRD.
Using the financing package proceeds Agrotrade, which farms over an area of 50,000 hectares in eastern Ukraine and employs almost 2,000 employees, is planning to install gas-based drying equipment at 5 of its existing silos and build a greenfield seed-processing plant with an annual capacity of 10,000 tonnes of seeds.
Energy efficiency measures, envisaged by the project, will allow Agrotrade to generate energy savings of approximately 1.9 million cubic metres of natural gas per year and achieve direct production cost savings of around US\\$ 1 million.
EBRD support will help increase Agrotrade’s efficiency thus contributing to its domestic and international competitiveness. It is also expected that once the project is completed it will set the highest standards in energy efficiency of grain storage facilities in Ukraine.
By financing Agrotrade the Bank is supporting a vertically integrated and locally grown company. The transaction also provides an injection of much-needed capital into the Ukrainian agribusiness sector.
The EBRD is the largest financial investor in Ukraine. To date, the Bank has committed over EUR 7.4 billion (USD 9.76 billion) through 293 projects.
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