|
Ukrainian firms to get efficiency boost from 1st private energy services co
A new energy services company in Ukraine backed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Western NIS Enterprise Fund, a regional private equity fund, could help Ukrainian firms trim their energy bills.
The EBRD is extending a $10 million loan to CJSC Energy Alliance, the first privately owned energy services company (ESCO) in Ukraine. The EBRD will provide $5 million of its own funds and has syndicated the remaining $5 million to Austria’s Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG (RZB).
Energy Alliance will finance and develop co-generation and electricity-generation projects for creditworthy Ukrainian industrial clients. The loan proceeds will be used to finance the purchase of generation equipment, which will be leased to clients.
Jacquelin Ligot, head of the Energy Efficiency Team at the EBRD, said the loan illustrates the Bank’s commitment to energy efficiency investments in its countries of operations. The project has the potential to improve the cost base of creditworthy industrial clients, as well as encourage other ESCOs to establish operations in Ukraine, he said.
Maxim Burtovy, Director of Energy Alliance, added that the project would enable industrial companies to enhance their competitiveness by lowering their energy bills through use of state-of-the-art technologies. Over a 10-year period, the companies may save up to 25 per cent on the cost of energy by producing it using a co-generation engine.
Karl Sevelda, Board Member at RZB heading corporate finance, added: “As our subsidiary, Raiffeisenbank, is the largest foreign bank in Ukraine, we see it as one of our responsibilities to pave the way for energy efficiency in the country. By increasing the competitiveness of companies – many of them our clients – we also see a benefit in this investment.”
Energy Alliance is owned by Western NIS Enterprise Fund, a $150 million private equity fund established in 1995 to invest in small- and medium-sized private enterprises in Ukraine and Moldova; Gostomel Glass Factory; a group of companies associated with Gostomel Glass Factory; and Turbo-Spektr, a Ukrainian power engineering company.
The EBRD’s cumulative investments in Ukraine stand at €1.3 billion through 57 projects.
RZB is a leading co-financing partner of the EBRD. In 2003 alone RZB has committed to participate in 12 EBRD transactions with a total amount in excess of €125 million.
|
