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Ukraine glass producer receives EBRD loan
The EBRD, together with two commercial banks, is providing a €10 million loan
to OJSC Biomedsklo a Ukrainian producer of glass containers for the beverage
and medical industries based in Zhytomyr, central Ukraine and majority owned
by Yioula Glassworks SA of Greece.
The loan facility consists of an A loan of EUR 4 million to be held by the
EBRD and a B loan of EUR 6 million which has been syndicated to National Bank
of Greece S.A. and Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG, with €3 million each.
The loan will be used for the modernisation of one of the two existing
furnaces in order to increase capacity by around 15,000 metric tonnes per
annum, lower production costs and raise operational efficiency.
The project will involve very significant energy efficiency components. In
particular, gas consumption per metric tonnes of produced glass can be reduced
by 57 per cent, electricity consumption is expected to fall by 31 per cent and
production is expected to rise by 68 per cent.
Gilles Mettetal, the EBRD’ Agribusiness Group director, said the Bank
continues to be the biggest lender to Ukraine’s glass industry and is
providing continuous support for genuine foreign direct investments. The
European Bank is looking forward to participating in future Yioula projects in
Ukraine and in the region in general, he added.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is the biggest financial
investor in Ukraine. As of the end of September 2006 it has committed over EUR
2.4 billion through 120 projects.
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