OREANDA-NEWS. The EBRD is investing EUR 3.6 million to strengthen the Croatian pharmaceutical packaging producer Piramida d.o.o. and in plans to expand the company’s production. While EUR 2.7 million will be used for balance sheet restructuring, the remaining EUR 0.9 million will finance additional production facilities.

Piramida, established in 1950 serves mainly the markets of former Yugoslavia, and today is the regional leader in manufacturing ampoules and vials for the pharmaceutical industry. The company generates over 90 per cent of its sales from exports.

Despite steady growth over the past years the company has identified significant growth potential which Piramida is aiming to address with an ambitious investment programme during the period 2012-2016 to replace or replenish the current production facilities which were constructed in the 1980s. The investment programme includes the extension of the production hall, the acquisition of additional production lines and the installation of state-of-the-art technology to boost output.

Piramida was privatised in 2001 and acquired by Blue Sea Capital, a fund incorporated in the Netherlands with offices in Croatia and Serbia investing in mid-sized companies in former Yugoslavia, in July 2012.

The EBRD loan to Piramida is being arranged under the EBRD Local Enterprise Facility, an investment instrument providing long-term financing to small and medium-sized enterprises in the Western Balkans, Turkey and the SEMED region (Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia). It provides a wide range of flexible financial products to companies, whose needs are not sufficiently addressed by existing financing sources.