Interglass restarts production of float glass following EBRD-financed modernisation
After a period of extensive modernisation, Interglass – the largest industrial glass producer in Central Asia – is restarting the operation of its float glass plant. The furnace was fired up during a ceremony in Tokmok in the north of the country.The EBRD provided a total of about US$ 22 million to Interglass, including a US$ 10 million loan approved in July 2011 to support the modernisation project. The project went ahead despite the onset of the global economic crisis and political upheaval in the Kyrgyz Republic.
Bank and two private equity partners to buy into Russia’s third biggest lab chain
Two Russia-focused private equity groups, UFG Private Equity and CapMan, are joining forces with the EBRD to buy into KDL, Russia’s third largest chain of private laboratories for medical testing which operates in one of the fastest growing segments of the country’s health sector. In Russia, demand for private lab services is expected to growth 15- 20 percent driven by the increase of direct laboratory services for private clients, the growth of private health care industry and increased outsourcing by the public sector.
KDL Group was established in 2003 and now is the #3 participant in the Russian laboratory market. In addition to its central laboratory in Moscow, KDL operates five regional labs in Perm, Omsk, Kazan, Krasnodar, Astrakhan, and 60 blood collection points. KDL Group was certified to GOST R ISO 9001-2008 and 15189-2009 standards in October, 2011.
EBRD arranges €35 million financing for modernisation of Polish-owned Russian sanitary ware plant
The EBRD is providing long-term financing to support restructuring, modernisation and expansion of a sanitary ware plant located in Syzran, Samara Region, Russia. The plant, Syzranskaya Keramika, needs improvements to benefit from the fast-growing demand for sanitary ware in Russia. This deal will also promote foreign investment in Russia's regions, which remain underserved by foreign capital and cross-border investment in general.
EBRD will arrange long-term financing of up to €35.5 million, of which up to €7 million denominated in roubles, for a group of companies (Glemarco, Pilkington's East and the plant, Syzranskaya Keramika, all three wholly owned by Polish entrepreneur Michal Solowow). As part of the deal, this group of companies-joint borrowers will closely cooperate with Rovese SA (formerly Cersanit SA), a company controlled by Michal Solowow.
Rovese SA is a Poland-based sanitary ware and ceramic tiles producer, listed on the Warsaw stock exchange, with a strong presence in Eastern Europe, and an established client of the EBRD.
Loan to growing furniture cluster on Belarus-Russia border
The EBRD is lending €5 million to finance the building of a furniture plant in a fast-growing cluster on Belarus’s border with Russia. The plant will use raw material supplied by the cluster’s first project, a Lithuanian-owned wood processing plant, to which the Bank provided an initial loan seven months ago.
The output of the two plants, which are situated in a free enterprise zone outside the border city of Mogilev on Belarus’s eastern border, is earmarked for the biggest retailers in the region and particularly targets a rapidly developing consumer market in Russia. Both plants are owned by Lithuanian investors.
When completed, Mebelain’s greenfield plant aims to produce about 750,000 items of veneer-faced furniture a year
EBRD lends EUR 120 million for pioneering Russian forestry project, Kronospan to build first Russian plant producing OSB wood panelling
The EBRD is providing long-term funding of EUR 120 million, including an EUR 50 million syndicated loan, to OOO Kronospan, chiefly to finance the creation of the first Russian plant producing Oriented Strand Board (OSB), an exceptionally strong wood-based panel used in the construction industry which at present has to be imported. EBRD is the lender of record for the full amount of EUR 120 million under an EBRD A/B loan structure and is taking a seven-year EUR 70 million A Loan onto its own books.
Kronospan is currently a major importer of OSB into Russia, drawing on production from the five OSB plants it operates in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Luxembourg and Romania. Demand for this type of panelling is mainly driven by the growing demand for timber-framed housing
The company will set up OSB production at its existing plant at Egorievsk in Moscow Region, one of the biggest wood-processing plants in the country, and contribute advanced manufacturing technology in the process.
New EBRD investment in Bosnia-Herzegovina’s road infrastructure, €28.5 million loan for the construction of Brcko bypass
Brcko town, in the north-eastern part of the country.The proceeds of the EBRD loan will be used to build a two-lane 19 kilometres bypass around Brcko that will connect to the main east-west route passing through the Brcko District. The project will help ease the traffic congestion in the town and will bring environmental benefits by reducing the flow of traffic in the town centre.
“The Brcko Bypass project is the largest investment so far in Brcko District BiH. Through the implementation of this project we will improve the living standard in Brcko, as the upgraded transport infrastructure will also make the District more attractive to investors and support creation of new jobs", said Miroslav Gavrić, ScD, mayor of Brcko District.
EBRD arranges financing for Russian car plant in Kaluga. Peugeot Citroen Mitsubishi joint venture gets €320 million funding
The EBRD and a syndicate of commercial banks today agreed to lend a joint venture formed by France’s Peugeot-Citroen and Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corporation €320 million to fund the production of passenger cars in their Kaluga plant in Russia. The plant will have a capacity of 125,000 vehicles a year once it is fully completed in 2015.
Located in Kaluga, 180 km south-west of Moscow, the plant is the first green-field investment in Russia’s automobile sector since a financial and economic crisis hit the country in 2008. It will produce mid-sized passenger cars and SUVs sold under the Peugeot, Citroen and Mitsubishi brand names.
The new project will increase demand for locally manufactured parts in Russia and thus represents a vote of confidence in the future of the country’s automotive industry, said Alain Pilloux, the EBRD’s Managing Director for Industry, Commerce and Agribusiness at a signing ceremony in Paris today.
The EBRD funding will finance the second stage of the Kaluga project which involves building two welding lines, a paint shop and two assembly lines. Local content of the cars produced under the second stage is required to rise to 30 per cent and the project will thus stimulate the growth of the auto parts industry in Russia.
