The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a €10 million loan to Poland’s Selena, a producer of construction chemicals. The company has been growing strongly and operates globally, manufacturing and providing professional contractors and DIY users with a wide array of construction products.
The EBRD loan will support Selena’s further expansion to Kazakhstan, where the company already has a subsidiary which will benefit from a €7 million equivalent loan in tenge. The proceeds of this portion of the loan will re-finance the acquisition of a local production company and the construction of a greenfield production plant. The remaining €3 million will be provided as working capital to the parent company.
The Selena Group is investing in Kazakhstan to build manufacturing capacity and expand its product offering in the strategically important product group of insulation systems.
Selena was founded in 1992 and has grown through acquisitions and exports. Today the company is present on four continents and has eight factories in Poland and seven abroad, with over 70 per cent of sales coming from international markets.
The expansion to fast-growing Asian markets has allowed the company to lessen its dependence on European markets, including the Polish home market which has been relatively stagnant in recent years. Selena is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
Grzegorz Zieliński, EBRD Director, Poland, said: “We are very pleased to sign today’s agreement with Selena as it will allow us to support the international expansion of a strong Polish company. Local currency lending will alleviate some of the foreign exchange risk for the company and allow it to focus on the growth of its business.”
Janet Heckman, EBRD Director, Kazakhstan, added: “We are happy to support Selena's investment in Kazakhstan's growing construction materials sector, which is expanding particularly rapidly in the capital Astana. The EBRD loan will contribute to making Kazakhstan more energy efficient with the help of locally produced construction materials.”
“Kazakhstan is one of key markets for Selena, and expanding the product group of insulation systems is the direction we decided to take in our strategy for 2016. We are operating in a highly unstable economic environment, so it is crucial to have various tools at our disposal to both boost our presence in the market of Kazakhstan and improve the way we take on the foreign exchange challenges that come with being a multinational company,” said Jarosław Michniuk, Selena Group CEO.
Since the beginning of its operations in Poland in 1991, the EBRD has invested €7.38 billion in almost 350 projects in the country. In 2014 alone the Bank financed 25 projects with a total commitment of €600 million, mainly in the financial institutions, energy, corporate, industry and infrastructure sectors.
