OREANDA-NEWS. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a USD 25 million loan to RG Brands in Kazakhstan. The loan, which is available both in tenge and US dollars will support the company’s growing working capital needs to purchase raw materials and expand its presence in Kazakhstan and neighbouring countries.

RG Brands is one of the leading fast moving consumer goods (FMCG)  producers in Kazakhstan, with a wide and diversified product portfolio of juice and nectars, water, soft drinks, iced tea, UHT milk, packaged tea and snacks. RG Brands has four production plants in Kazakhstan. Since its inception in 1994, the company has established an exclusive bottling partnership with PepsiCo and Pepsi Lipton, and has developed a range of its own strong local brands.

Now the company wants to enhance its capital structure and expand its presence in Kazakhstan and neighbouring Central Asian countries, especially in the Kyrgyz Republic, where it already has a distribution network. The proceeds of the loan will also be used to provide some pre-financing to local farmers, which will mean a more secure supply of raw materials, from milk to fruit concentrate, to potatoes.

In 2008 the EBRD financed a greenfield production plant in Almaty, which is now RG Brands’ largest production facility.

To date, the EBRD has invested approximately EUR 5 billion in more than 160 projects, mobilising around EUR 7 billion for these projects from other sources of financing.