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EBRD helps revive industry in BiH
€11 mln loan to help modernise pulp and paper plant Natron Hayat
The EBRD is lending Natron Hayat, a pulp and paper factory in Maglaj, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, €11 million to help modernise the plant and increase
production of its main products, including cardboard and paper for making
large sacks.
The loan will help revive the plant by upgrading existing equipment and
rebuilding and restarting the pulp plant and a machine for making sack paper,
bringing production up to full capacity. The investment will help to raise
company sales substantially. It will also help improve efficiency at the plant
by upgrading energy, water and waste-water treatment facilities, improving
environmental standards to European Union levels.
Claudio Viezzoli, EBRD Director for the Western Balkans, said the Bank is
helping to transform an aging plant into one that will be modern, competitive
and more environmentally friendly. The loan should demonstrate to other
investors of the benefits of restructuring older, inefficient companies and
turning them into profit-making success stories, said Mr Viezzoli. The loan is
also helping support the local forestry industry by sourcing raw materials
such as wood chipping from local suppliers, he added.
Previously Natron had been one of the leading pulp and paper manufacturers in
Yugoslavia. But its production declined following the Bosnian conflict in
1992. Damage to equipment and a lack of investment in the then state-owned
company saw exports to neighbouring countries fall to just 20 per cent of
pre-conflict levels. Following the privatisation in 2005, the plant, renamed
as Natron Hayat, is now majority-owned by KEAS, the leading wood processing
company in Turkey. The government retains a 30 per cent stake in the company.
Yıldırım Aktürk, President of Natron-Hayat, said the EBRD’s loan, together
with other creditors such as Finland’s Nordea, and Austria’s BACA, will
complement KEAS own funding bringing a total of €65 million in investments to
increase exports and sales. It will help us to become competitive and a
leading player in the sack paper market in the Balkans and Turkey, said Mr
Aktürk. This project, being the largest Turkish investment in BiH, could also
pave the way for other investments from Turkey, he added.
The EBRD is one of the largest investors in Bosnia and Herzegovina, having
committed more than €560 million in 48 projects.
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