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EUR57.5 million EBRD loan to Pilkington plant in Russia
Glass produced at EBRD-funded plant to target Russian building industry
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has agreed to lend the Russian offshoot of Britain’s Pilkington plc up to €57.5 million to help one of the world’s leading glass manufacturers set up its first production facility in Russia. Of this amount, €12.5 million has been syndicated to the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO).
The 10-year loan will help finance the construction of a plant with an annual capacity of over 243,000 tonnes of float glass in the Moscow region. Its output will initially target Russia’s booming house-building industry. The capital cost of this greenfield project is around €156 million.
The EBRD is glad to help a strategic investor whose entry on the Russian market will bring benefits in terms of high standards of business conduct and environmental management as well as new technologies that should help the sector gain in efficiency, said Noreen Doyle, the EBRD’s First Vice President.
The plant, to be situated near the small town of Ramenskoye south of Moscow, will employ about 200 people and is expected to create an additional 400 jobs in the area.
The borrower is Pilkington Glass LLC, a 50-50 Russian joint venture set up by the Pilkington group with Emerging Europe Infrastructure Fund, a limited partnership which is acting strictly as a financial investor.
The EBRD loan to Pilkington is being made in parallel to a €42.5 million loan from the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank.
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