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New glass furnace for Ukraine's bottle manufacturer
EBRD loan boosts largest domestic glass factory
Gostomel Glass Factory, Ukraine’s largest ISO 9001-certified glass-bottle producer, is borrowing $17 million from the EBRD to build a new facility that will enable it to produce 600,000 beer bottles a day.
In an important sign of both Ukraine’s and Gostomel’s increasing attraction as a place to invest, $11.5 million of the loan is being syndicated to two private financial investors: Austria’s Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG and Canada’s International Finance Participation Trust.
Having successfully completed its initial development phase, also financed by the EBRD, Gostomel Glass Factory is now building the new facility around a new glass melting furnace. It will produce 220 tonnes of glass, which should help Gostomel Glass Factory maintain its leading position in the fast-growing Ukrainian glass market.
Hans Christian Jacobsen, the EBRD’s Director for Agribusiness, commended Gostomel Glass Factory’s high quality and aggressive marketing strategy, which have earned it such important clients as Coca Cola, Sun Interbrew, BBH and the St Petersburg-based breweries Baltika and Vena. In a highly competitive market, only companies like Gostomel Glass Factory, which offer top-quality but locally made, thus competitively priced products, can satisfy ever-demanding clients, he said.
Successful syndication of this deal demonstrates the attractiveness of lending to strong Ukrainian companies and shows that long-term financing is available in Ukraine to companies that are committed to transparency and adoption of international standards.
The EBRD is the largest investor in the agribusiness sector across its 27 countries of operations, with more than 202 investments worth more than €3 billion. In Ukraine, the Bank’s cumulative investment stands at €1.3 billion through 58 projects. With this investment, EBRD commitments in Ukraine’s glass sector to date make € 35.2 million.
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